EC Starts Investigating Porn Sites

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos for suspected breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The investigation is focused on creating a safer online environment for minors.

The Commission's investigations focus on the risks to the protection of minors, including those linked to the absence of effective age verification measures. The EC preliminarily found that the platforms do not comply with putting in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for minors, in particular with age verification tools to safeguard minors from adult content, and risk assessment and mitigation measures of any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users, and to prevent minors from accessing adult content, notably via appropriate age verification tools.

Protecting young users online is one of the key enforcement priorities under the DSA. Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services. If proven, failure to comply with these requirements would constitute an infringement of the DSA.

In parallel, the EC announced the termination of the designation of Stripchat as a Very Large Online Platform. This follows a request by Stripchat and an assessment which concluded that Stripchat's number of average monthly active recipients in the EU had been lower than the relevant threshold for an uninterrupted period of one year. Stripchat's obligations as a Very Large Online Platform will cease to apply four months from its de-designation.

In addition, the Member States, in the European Board for Digital Services, have launched a coordinated action to protect minors as regards pornographic content on smaller platforms. These smaller platforms fall under the supervision of the respective national Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) of the Member State where they are established. The action complements the Commission's opening of proceedings against the very large adult-content platforms and ensures that the DSA is applied consistently across the EU.

”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. Together with the Digital Service Coordinators in the Member States, we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users,” said Henna Virkkunen, EC EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy.