On Tuesday 27 May, the European Commission announced that it had launched an investigation against four adult content websites - Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos - accusing them of not doing enough to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit content, in direct violation of Article 28 of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission’s main complaint is the lack of measures to control the age of users - at this stage, a simple self-declaration of majority is sufficient to be granted access to the platforms.
Insufficient, according to the European institution, which believes it has “sufficient evidence” to justify opening an investigation, “despite the allegations of risk mitigation made by the platforms”.
Article 28 of the DSA governs the protection of minors online, a subject that has recently come to the forefront of political debate in several Member States (see EUROPE 13642/10).
A fortnight ago, the Commission launched a call for consultations to help draft its guidelines for the protection of minors online, which are intended to supplement the obligations of the DSA (see EUROPE 13639/18).
The Commission also considers that the four pornographic sites have not taken “sufficient measures to avoid negative effects on children’s rights and the mental and physical well-being of users”.
Stripchat, whose average number of active users has fallen below 45 million, will be removed from the list of ‘very large online platforms’ (VLOPs), the Commission said on the same day. The investigation will cover the period when the platform was subject to the strictest of DSA rules.
For smaller platforms, where the number of users remains below the DSA threshold, the Commission is relying on the regulation’s national coordinators to enforce the obligations.
As with all formal procedures, no date for the closure of the investigation has been communicated by the institution, which states that it is cooperating extensively with the sites concerned at this stage. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)