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Indian Express
2 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
EU investigates four major porn sites under bloc's digital rules on child protection
European Union regulators said Tuesday they're investigating four major porn websites over suspicions that they've breached the bloc's online content rules that include provisions for protecting children from pornographic material. The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, said it has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Safety Act. The sweeping rulebook, also known as the DSA, requires internet companies and online platforms to do more to protect users under threat of hefty fines worth up to 6% of annual global revenue. The commission said protecting young users online is one of the DSA's priorities and it will now carry out an in-depth investigation into the companies 'as a matter of priority.' The investigation will focus on the risks to protection of minors, including dangers associated with the lack of effective age verification measures. It said the porn sites have failed to put in place 'appropriate and proportionate measures' to a high level safety and security for minors, especially when it comes to age verification tools designed to prevent minors from getting to adult content. The sites also lack 'risk assessment and mitigation measures' of any negative effects, including on users mental and physical well-being, the commission said. Pornhub, XNXX, Stripchat and XVideos were classed as 'very large online platforms' that face the highest level of scrutiny under the DSA. However the commission said it granted Stripchat's request to be removed from the list because it didn't have enough users. Pornhub's parent company Aylo said it's aware of the investigation and is 'fully committed' to ensuring online safety of minors. 'We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety and security of users,' the company said in a statement. Aylo said that 'the real solution for protecting minors and adults alike' is to verify users' ages with individual devices rather than having websites do it. XNXX, Stripchat and XVideos didn't respond to requests 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 Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement. Officials said the EU is also working on its own age-verification app that online platforms can use to verify if a user is over the age of 18, without revealing any other personal information. It will be available by the summer. The investigation comes after the commission held a public consultation on draft online children protection measures that included proposals for age verification and 'age estimation' methods to block young people from inappropriate content. Along with the bloc-wide scrutiny of big sites, smaller porn platforms will also face supervision from individual EU member countries's digital regulators, the Commission said.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Irish Independent
Porn sites to be investigated for failing to comply with rules to protect children
Adult content platforms Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos will be investigated for failing to comply with rules to protect children, EU regulators said yesterday, in a move that could lead to fines of as much as 6pc of their global annual turnover. The European Commission said the companies had not complied with the Digital Services Act, which requires them to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms following their designation as very large online platforms in 2023.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
PornHub Among Adult Sites Probed by EU on Child Safety Fears
The European Union has started a probe into adult video platforms PornHub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos based on concerns over child protection. The EU's executive arm opened formal proceedings that alleged the four websites failed to take actions to protect minors from accessing pornography, including the use of age-verification mechanisms, required by the Digital Services Act. The European Commission said in a statement Tuesday that it will collect evidence and responses from the companies over the next few months.
CNN
3 days ago
- General
- CNN
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.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
EU regulators to investigate pornography sites
Online regulators at the European Commission have opened an investigation into Pornhub and three other pornography sites, over suspected lax efforts to prevent children accessing their explicit content. The EU's executive arm announced it had opened formal inquiries into Pornhub, XNXX, Stripchat, and XVideos, for possible breaches of the union's strict regulations of large online platforms. The investigation will centre on suspected lax age verification checks used by the sites, where users simply have to click a pop-up stating they are at least 18 years of age, to access the websites. The EU's Digital Services Act, which came into force early last year, gives commission regulators powers to investigate the spread of harmful and illegal online content. READ MORE Big online platforms found to be in breach of the tech regulations can be hit with large fines. 'Children should not have access to pornographic content. We suspect that these pornographic platforms are not properly assessing and mitigating risks stemming from their services and not effectively preventing kids from accessing adult content,' a commission spokesman said. Existing age verification checks used by the sites were not seen as effective, he said. The investigations into Pornhub and the other sites are expected to take several months at least. The inquiries may end in the commission fining the companies, or directing them to change their practices. 'We will now conduct an in-depth investigation and invite the four companies to co-operate throughout the process,' the commission spokesman said on Tuesday. The commission is trying to tackle the age verification problem itself, by introducing an EU-wide 'digital wallet'. The scheme would allow people to verify their identity when accessing services online. A trial of the digital ID idea will begin this summer, while the commission works towards a wider implementation of the concept. Separately, Pornhub received more than 7,000 reports about potential child sex abuse material being hosted on its website last year, according to an annual report required to be published to comply with the EU's new digital regulations. A further 1,200 complaints were flagged to the platform about possible non-consensual videos or other content on the website. Some 100 videos or other pieces of content were removed by Pornhub over fears they depicted child sex abuse material, the report said. Police in Germany made eight requests for information about users of the website, in connection with investigations into online child sexual abuse material.
