The European Commission earlierPoint outThe pornographic website Pornhub has failed to fulfill its responsibilities in restricting underage users' access to content, and has also intervened to investigate whether pornographic services such as Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos have also failed to effectively restrict underage users' access to content.
The European Commission believes that these erotic service websites violate the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) because they only provide the option to click on whether you are over 18 years old when connecting to the website, and do not conduct actual age verification. This means that any user can access the relevant erotic content by simply clicking on the option to be over 18 years old.
However, Pornhub emphasized in a subsequent statement that it is fully committed to protecting the online browsing safety of minors, and further stated that its website services comply with the RTA standards proposed by the Association for Website Protection of Children (ASACP), and strictly restrict underage users from accessing content at will.
Earlier this year, Pornhub announced that it had closed its doors in 17 states due to strict age verification regulations.Shut down its serviceThe move was initially prompted by Louisiana’s implementation of strict age verification to prevent minors from viewing pornographic websites, which then led to Texas and other states following suit, forcing Pornhub to shut down its services in multiple states across the United States.
In addition, Pornhub also claimed that even if strict age verification regulations are implemented, it cannot prevent minors from watching pornographic content through other channels, but instead affects the operation of services that comply with relevant regulations. For example, after Louisiana enacted similar regulations last year, Pornhub’s overall traffic dropped by as much as 80% after cooperating with the implementation of relevant practices.
