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After being added to the EU’s Digital Services Act’s strictest list of platforms, Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos may use age verification technology.
The EU named 17 VLOPs and two VLOSEs under the DSA in April. No adult sites were on the first list. The three platforms announced today change that.
XVideos and Pornhub are the most visited adult content sites in the world, according to Wikipedia, which was already a VLOP in the first wave of Commission designations. Stripchat streams nude performers on adult webcams.
No age verification, not self-declaration, is required before accessing content on the three services, but that may change in the region as they become VLOPs.
In a press release today, the EU stated that designated (larger) platforms, which have more than 45 million monthly average users in the region, must design their services, including their interfaces, recommender systems, and terms and conditions, to address and prevent risks to children’s well-being. Protecting child rights and preventing minors from accessing pornographic content online, including with age verification tools,”
The Commission, which oversees VLOPs’ DSA compliance, reiterated today that child safety online is an enforcement priority.
VLOPs must also document and analyze any “specific systemic risks” their services may pose to the dissemination of illegal content and content threatening fundamental rights and produce risk assessment reports that must be shared with the Commission and then made public.
They must also mitigate risks from online content, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and content that violates fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and privacy in the case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material or deepfake pornography.
“These measures can include adapting their terms and conditions, interfaces, moderation processes, or algorithms, among others,” the Commission says.
The three VLOP adult platforms have four months to comply with the additional DSA requirements, including age verification technology, by late April.
“The Commission services will carefully monitor the compliance with the DSA obligations by these platforms, especially concerning the measures to protect minors from harmful content and to address the dissemination of illegal content,” the EU said. “The Commission services are ready to closely engage with the newly designated platforms to ensure these are properly addressed.”
The DSA also requires smaller digital services and VLOPs to ensure their systems provide high levels of privacy, safety, and child protection and to promptly notify law enforcement authorities if they suspect a criminal offence involving a threat to a person’s life or safety, including child sexuasion.
The DSA applies to the EU and EEA, which excludes the UK after Brexit. However, the UK government passed its own Online Safety Act (OSA) this fall, establishing telecoms regulator Ofcom as the country’s Internet content watchdog and imposing harsher penalties for violations than the EU (OSA fines can reach 10% of global annual turnover vs. 6% under the DSA).
Child protection is also emphasized in UK law. Porn sites must conduct “highly effective” age checks to comply with a new legal duty to protect minors from adult content online, but they cannot use age gates that ask users to self-declare they are over 18.
Porn site users can upload a copy of their passport to verify their age, show their face to their webcam to undergo an AI age assessment, or sign in to Open Banking to prove they’re not a minor, among other methods approved by Ofcom.
