Italy’S Age Verification For Adult Sites: A Missed Milestone

Italy's Age Verification Plans Fall Short

As of November 12, 2025, a decree meant to enforce age verification on adult websites in Italy has yet to impact accessibility. Despite months of anticipation and announcements from the Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM), major adult sites remain freely open to users without any new verification systems in place.

Leaving Pornhub, the globe's leading adult content platform, unchanged, users can still claim they are 18 or older with a simple click. This mirrors standard practices elsewhere, but other countries have implemented actual checks, unlike Italy's current situation. Such developments have sparked discussions about Italy's commitment to online safety, despite pressure from both political and social circles.

“Italy promised a decisive move, but reality shows otherwise – the sites stay open, and checks exist only on paper,” commented a concerned citizen.

Technical, Political, and Cultural Setbacks

The failure to launch the age verification system highlights not just technical difficulties, but political and cultural issues, too. Methods such as VPNs and proxy servers continue to undermine geographic and access restrictions, rendering the new rules superficial at best. In the meantime, cybercriminals gain from this regulatory gap by promoting misleading "infostealer" VPNs disguised as free services, compromising user data.

Italy’s struggle with effectively enforcing its digital laws tarnishes its image on the global stage. When a nation declares a measure but fails to implement it, it casts doubt on its credibility and efficacy in managing digital content. The country had seen similar outcomes before, notably with the unfulfilled restriction of the Chinese AI, DeepSeek.

What's Next? Italy's Way Forward

As of now, no penalties or corrective actions against non-compliant websites have been announced. This silence contrasts sharply with France's approach, where swift action ensured compliance following their age verification rollout. Italy, however, is left in limbo, with declarations yet to be backed by concrete actions.

As technology speeds ahead, Italy faces the challenge of bridging the gap between grand promises and actual achievements. The late Adriano Olivetti’s words resonate: “Italy still proceeds through compromise, through the old systems of political opportunism, bureaucratic power, grand promises, grand plans, and modest achievements.”