The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it will investigate four porn platforms – Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos – under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission said that the DSA investigations will focus on a lack of effective protection for minors on the four porn platforms – especially around the absence of age verification systems.
“All the platforms use click-away age verification on their entry pages, which we suspect are not compliant with the EU’s DSA,” said a Commission official.
The Commission will look more closely into if the four porn platforms comply with EU rules to ensure the safety and security of minors online. The porn platforms also may not currently comply with risk assessment and mitigation measures that safeguard the mental and physical well-being of children on these platforms, the EU executive said in a statement.
An in-depth investigation will be conducted “as a matter of priority”, the Commission said.
The Commission is also coordinating with EU countries to protect children on smaller porn platforms with less than 45 million monthly users in the EU. The Commission said that it intends to finalise an EU-wide age verification tool by the end of next year.
Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos were designated as so-called Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) in June and December 2024, after which the Commission opened proceedings against the platforms. In the same announcement on Tuesday, the Commission said that the Cypriot-based pornographic website Stripchat will no longer be designated as a VLOP.
(jp/om)
