EU Launches Investigation Into 4 Large Pornography Sites

The sites are being investigated by regulators under the bloc’s Digital Services Act.

European Union flags fly outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 20, 2016. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

The European Union is investigating four large adult websites over suspicions they may have violated rules, including regulations for protecting minors from exposure to pornography online, regulators announced on Tuesday.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said it has initiated formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA requires internet companies and online platforms to protect users or else face fines that can go as high as 6 percent of a company’s global annual revenue.

The commission said it would carry out an in-depth investigation into the four adult content providers “as a matter of priority.”

The investigation will focus on the risks to the 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” of 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.

The four sites were classed as “very large online platforms,” meaning they are subjected to the highest level of scrutiny under the DSA.

Pornhub and Stripchat are both based in the EU member state of Cyprus, while XNXX and XVideos both operate out of the Czech Republic, which is also part of the bloc.

However, the commission said it has granted Stripchat’s request to be removed from the list because it fell under the user-number threshold.

Stripchat’s obligations as a “very large online platform” will cease to apply in four months’ time, at which point it will be monitored by the Cyprus Radiotelevision Authority, where the site is based.

Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, said: “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.”

The commission also said the bloc had begun working on its own age-verification app that online platforms can use to verify a user’s age without revealing any other personal information.

It will be available by the summer and is intended to “bridge the gap until the EU Digital Wallet becomes available by the end of 2026.”

The wallet would, according to the commission’s website, “enable users to access online and offline public and private services, store and share digital documents, and create binding signatures,” and be made available to all citizens, residents, and businesses within the bloc.

Pornhub’s owner, the Cyprus based group Aylo Freesites, told The Epoch Times it was aware of the investigation, that it is “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online,” and that its sites were fully restricted to adults only.

“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,” it said.

“We believe that the real solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ ages at the point of access—the users’ devices—and for websites to deny or permit access to age-restricted materials based on that verification.”

The Epoch Times has also contacted all the owners of Stripchat for comment, but has so far been unable to contact XVideos’ and XNXX’s parent companies.