EU investigates four porn platforms over risks to children

Child safety at risk as EU investigates porn sites over age-check failures. Photo / Getty Images

The European Union launched an investigation today NZT into four pornographic platforms over suspicions they are failing to stop children from accessing adult content in breach of the bloc’s strict digital content law.

The European Commission said its investigations into Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos “focus on the risks for the protection of minors, including those linked to the absence of effective age-verification measures”.

The commission, the EU’s tech regulator, accused the platforms of not having “appropriate” age-verification tools to prevent children from being exposed to porn.

An AFP correspondent had only to click a button on Tuesday local time stating that they were older than 18, without any further checks, to gain access to each of the four platforms.

The commission found that the four platforms did not have “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for minors”.

They also did not have measures in place to prevent negative effects on children as well as users’ mental and physical wellbeing, the commission said.

“Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services,” it added.

Pornhub’s parent company Aylo said it was “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online”, adding that “we will always comply with the law”.

The EU’s Digital Services Act forces the world’s biggest tech companies to do more to protect European users online and has strict rules to safeguard children and ensure their privacy and security.

Under the law, “very large” online platforms with at least 45 million monthly active users in the EU have even greater obligations, and they are regulated by the commission rather than national authorities.

Fearful over children’s access to adult content, the commission said it would work with national authorities to make sure smaller porn platforms apply the same rules.

“Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online. Together with the digital service co-ordinators in the member states we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users,” EU digital tsar Henna Virkkunen said.

Protecting children

The EU also said it would remove Stripchat from the list of “very large” platforms since it now had fewer than 45 million monthly active users on average, with its probe to focus on the period when it fell under its purview.

Brussels noted that the launch of formal proceedings did not prejudge the investigation’s outcome, and that there was no deadline for its completion.

Violations, if proven, risk fines of up to 6% of a firm’s global turnover. Platforms found guilty of serious and repeated violations can also be banned from operating in Europe.

The EU, in parallel, has invited the public, including parents, to help prepare guidelines for the protection of children online, and it is developing an age-verification app.

The act, which has a wide remit, sits within the EU’s powerful legal weaponry to regulate Big Tech.

Brussels has opened a wave of probes under the act since 2023 including into Meta’s Facebook and Instagram as well as TikTok and Elon Musk’s X social media platform.

- Agence France-Presse