The European Commission has launched an investigation against a number of popular porn platforms — Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos — over possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA), including in the area of protecting minors. This is reported by Politico, writes UNN.
Details
According to the publication, the investigations will focus on the platforms' age verification measures aimed at preventing minors from accessing adult content, as well as examining how the platforms assess and mitigate the risks associated with children's rights and user well-being.
According to one European Commission representative, the EU executive is concerned that the current self-declaration system is ineffective. According to him, the information requested from the platforms shows that "they really (do not) have an effective age verification system."
According to the Digital Services Act (DSA), violations of the rules may result in a fine of up to 6% of the company's annual global turnover. There are no specific deadlines for completing the investigation.
According to the media, the investigations are being carried out at a time when the issue of protecting minors on the Internet is becoming one of the main items on the EU's agenda for both member states and the Commission, and its scope may increase.
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"We do not rule out future expansion of consideration" to other issues within the DSA, such as illegal content or advertising storage, said a second Commission representative.
As the European Commission stated, in parallel, national authorities will work together to monitor compliance by smaller pornographic platforms with the bloc's digital rules within the framework of the Digital Services Council.
According to the first European Commission official, local authorities can start investigations, work together and "really put pressure" on these smaller platforms.
In addition, the Commission revoked VLOP status for Stripchat, as the company reported a user count below the 45 million threshold.
The companies mentioned in the investigation have mostly not commented on the situation. XVideos reported that they were unaware of the investigation, while Pornhub, Technius Ltd. (owner of Stripchat) and XNXX did not respond to POLITICO's requests.
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