EU opens investigation into porn sites to keep minors off their platforms

(CN) — European Union regulators on Tuesday launched proceedings to force popular online pornographic platforms to do a better job of keeping minors from accessing adult content.

The European Commission said it believed Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos were violating the Digital Services Act by not properly safeguarding minors.

At issue, the commission said, was a lack of “effective age verification measures” for people seeking access to the sites — specifically the platforms allowing users to simply verify their age with a click.

The commission, the EU’s executive arm, said an initial assessment found the platforms do not comply with the law’s requirement that porn sites “ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, in particular with age verification tools to safeguard minors from adult content.”

“The online space should be a safe environment for children to learn and connect,” said Henna Virkkunen, an EU executive overseeing security threats. “Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online.”

By opening the legal proceedings, the porn sites will have a chance to prove they are meeting the law’s requirements, change their practices to come into compliance with EU rules and challenge the commission’s findings.

Violation of the Digital Services Act can result in a fine of up to 6% of a company’s annual global turnover.

The commission said the EU was developing a special age-verification app that will become available for online service providers this summer to verify if a user is over 18 without revealing further identity information.

The Digital Services Act came into effect in August 2023. The law seeks to make the internet safer for Europeans by forcing the world’s biggest online platforms to remove harmful content such as disinformation and hate speech, and to stop targeting users with personalized advertising.

The act is considered the first attempt in the democratic world to rein in the lucrative practices by Big Tech to bombard users with personal ads and allow disinformation, hate speech, falsehoods and illegal content to mushroom across the internet.

Under the law, the EU has opened up major battles with Big Tech. It has accused TikTok ofnot being transparent enough about its advertisements, forced big social media platforms to pledge to do more totackle hate speech and promised to take action against Elon Musk’s X platform.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau