The European Union announced on Tuesday, May 27, the opening of an investigation against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVIDEOS pornographic platforms, suspected of not taking sufficient measures on Tuesday, May 27 to prevent minors from accessing their content.
As part of the new digital services (DSA), the European Commission is the absence of “appropriate” tools to verify the age of users and protect minors from adult content. As AFP could be seen, a user could access these platforms on Tuesday through a single click, ensuring that I am 18 years old, without additional verification. Ultimately, the opening of said survey can lead to strong financial sanctions in case of proven crimes.
“In collaboration with the digital service coordinators of the Member States, we are determined to attack everything that can damage young users,” he said.
With more than 45 million European users per month, Pornhub, Xnxx and Xvideos are part of large platforms subject to the reinforced rules of the DSA, in the same way as X (previously Twitter), Tiktok, Google or Facebook (Meta).
This May 27, the commission said that Stripchat would withdraw from this list, because it does not reach the threshold of 45 million users. But this change in the state of the platform takes several months and the reinforced rules of the DSA can be applied meanwhile.
Almost 40% of children
This law forces the greatest platforms to make more to protect European online users and provide strict rules to protect children and guarantee their privacy and security. They must also evaluate and relieve risks related to the use of their services.
In this last point, the Commission considers that the four pornographic sites have not taken sufficient measures to avoid “no negative effect on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well -being of users.” The commission also indicated that it would collaborate with the national authorities to ensure that smaller pornographic platforms apply the same rules.
In France, according to a study by the National Audiovisual Regulator of Arcom, conducted in the first half of 2024, almost 40% of children access pornographic sites every month.
The DSA, whose powers are vast, is part of the powerful legal arsenal available for the European Union to regulate large technological companies. Since 2023, Brussels has launched a wave of surveys in this context, especially in the Facebook and Meta Instagram sites, as well as in the social networks X and Tiktok.
The crimes, if demonstrated, are responsible for fines of up to 6% of the global billing of the company in question. Platforms recognized as guilty of serious and repeated crimes may also be prohibited from exercising their activities in Europe.
Source: BFM TV
