Pornhub and other adult websites under EU investigation over lack of child safety measures
The European Commission has launched an investigation into four major adult websites on Tuesday, accusing them of not complying with regulations that protect minors from accessing pornography.
Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos – the websites at the subject of the investigation – are accused of not doing enough to prevent children from accessing the adult content on their platforms.
Safeguarding minors from accessing pornography is an essential part of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), which went into effect in 2022 and applies to all platforms that are used in the bloc.
'Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services,' the European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday, highlighting that 'appropriate and proportionate measures' must be in place to ensure that minors are safe online.
The websites under investigation do not use effective age verification tools which would stop children from viewing harmful content, the European Commission alleged. CNN has reached out to Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos for comment.
'The online space should be a safe environment for children to learn and connect. Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online,' Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in Tuesday's statement.
In December 2023, the EU announced that it had added Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos to its list of 'very large online platforms' or VLOPs, a classification that subjects them to tougher standards covering age verification, content moderation and transparency under the DSA.
The commission announced Tuesday that Stripchat would no longer be designated a VLOP, as the site's number of average monthly active recipients in the EU is lower than the threshold needed for this classification.
Stripchat will still need to ensure a 'high level of protection of minors on its service' under the DSA despite this de-designation, the commission stressed.
The EU is developing an age-verification app that will allow individuals to prove that they are over 18 without revealing any other information about themselves online, the commission statement said. The app will be available this summer, it added.
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