By Grace Crivellaro in Canberra

One of the world’s largest pornography websites has blocked Australian users days before a deadline to introduce age-verification measures aimed at protecting children.

Aylo – a Canadian company operating free explicit video websites including Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and Tube8 – has restricted access for Australian users.

It follows “appropriate age assurance measures” taking effect from Monday, which Aylo is directly challenging.

The laws are part of phase two of the Online Safety Codes launched by the eSafety Commissioner to mandate strict age verification on content identified as unsuitable for Australian users aged under 18.

“A child today can’t walk into a bar and order a drink,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told ABC Radio on Monday.

“They can’t stroll into a strip club or browse an adult shop or sit down at a blackjack table in a casino.

“This really just brings the online world and those protections that we put for kids in place to the digital realm.”

Restricted content under the codes also includes media containing high-impact violence, self-harm material and dangerous content such as suicide and disordered eating.

The codes require websites hosting pornography and age-restricted material to verify ages of users through measures such as facial-age estimation, digital wallets and photo ID.

Ms Inman Grant said pornography sites using a button to ask users whether they are over 18 will no longer suffice.

“There needs to be more rigour behind that,” she said.

“We’re letting companies decide how they age verify, as long as it’s robust and fair that doesn’t force people into using digital or government ID and is privacy preserving.”

Non-compliance carries penalties of up to $49.5 million per breach.

The laws will also cover AI companions or chatbots, requiring AI companies to block inciting suicide or self-harm content to children.

“There are now a dozen lawsuits in the US taking on various chatbot providers,” Ms Inman Grant said.

“Sadly … a young man named Sewell Setzer was incited to take his own life, and that is the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit in the US against Character.ai.”

Age verification methods are already used by major social media platforms across the nation under Australia’s under-16s ban.

Ms Inman Grant said the social media ban has had early success, with 4.7 million accounts restricted across banned platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

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