A number of adult websites have begun blocking users in Australia in preparation for new codes requiring age verification from Monday.

Guardian Australia has confirmed RedTube, YouPorn, and Tube8 all had notices on their sites when visited from an Australian IP address on Friday stating they are “not currently accepting new account registrations in your region”.

The news was first reported by Crikey.

From Monday, adult sites, among a range of other services including AI companion chatbots and app stores will be required to implement age verification for users attempting to access pornography, extremely violent material or self-harm content.

The Australian online safety regulator has warned that platforms that are not in compliance with the codes could face fines of up to $49.5m per breach.

The parent company of the sites restricting access, Aylo, said the company would be in compliance with the law – including on Pornhub, the largest porn site in the world.

“Aylo’s video sharing platforms will be restricting access to adult material before the deadline on March 9th,” the spokesperson said. “Australia is following a similar approach to the UK, which all our evidence shows does not effectively protect minors, and instead creates harms relating to data privacy and exposure to illegal content on non-compliant platforms.”

Other sites have not yet implemented any restrictions. Pornhub was still accessible to Australian users on Friday, and users could sign up for new accounts, but Aylo’s statement indicated that is likely to change in the coming days.

On Friday, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, welcomed the introduction of the codes.

“We don’t allow children to walk into bars or bottle shops, adult stores or casinos, but when it comes to online spaces where they are spending a lot of their time, there are no such safeguards,” Inman Grant said.

When the UK last year implemented a similar age verification system for adult sites, in the first week of it launching, four of the top five downloaded apps in the Apple app store were virtual private network (VPN) apps, with Proton reporting an 1,800% increase in downloads of its VPN app.

VPNs allow users to appear to sites that they’re in another location, which could bypass age check requirements in Australia.

However, people in the UK were urged not to use VPNs, amid calls for the age-assurance system to be expanded to require VPN companies to check ages.

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