BRUSSELS—The European Union (E.U.) has charged four popular adult sites and the parent company of mainstream social app Snapchat with failures to comply with the bloc's sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA). Violations alleged include failures in age assurance and verification.
According to a statement published on Wednesday, the European Commission conducted a ten-month-long investigation under the purview of the Digital Services Act to discover that the adult tube platforms Pornhub, XNXX, XVideos and the popular live camming website Stripchat failed "to protect minors from being exposed to pornographic content."
"Children are accessing adult content at increasingly younger ages, and these platforms must put in place robust, privacy-preserving, and effective measures to keep minors off their services," said Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy in the statement.
Based on the preliminary findings of the investigation, the four adult platforms did not "identify and assess the risks posed to minors." The statement adds, "Despite stating in their Terms of Services that their services are for adults only, all four platforms allow minors to access their platforms by a simple click, confirming they are over 18."
Regulators additionally allege that the adult platforms failed to use supposedly "objective" methodologies that are thorough and expansive enough to assess the risks to minors who may access their services. Further, the European Commission is requiring platforms to adopt so-called "privacy-preserving age verification measures to protect children."
A source at the European Commission informed AVN that these investigation files for the adult platforms feature mischaracterized evidence and show a clear bias against adult sites. Rather, as outlined in the press statement and by the source, regulators accuse adult platforms of being more interested in mitigating reputational harm than in digital safety.
As is standard in these sorts of investigations, attorneys representing the adult sites will have the right to respond to the accusations of the investigation's initial findings.
"We have received the European Commission's preliminary findings and are carefully reviewing them," reads a statement from a spokesperson for Pornhub parent Aylo via
wire service Reuters. "These are preliminary findings, not a final decision, and our detailed analysis is ongoing. We will continue to engage constructively with the Commission as we present our position."
Corey Silverstein, an attorney who represents adult industry clients and has worked on Digital Services Act compliance for European clients, told AVN he is not surprised that the European Commission is engaged in such regulatory intervention against adult companies.
"The European Commission previously indicated that its interpretation of the DSA allowed it to pursue anyone offering services in the EU that was not providing adequate age verification," Silverstein said. "Unsurprisingly, the E.U. chose to target some of the most visited adult websites in the world, but that does not mean that smaller platforms should conclude that they are safe." He further mentioned that the financial penalties could be quite steep on adult platforms. Penalties can begin at 6 percent of global earnings.
Facing a similar investigation is Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat. Snapchat reports
94.7 million monthly users in the E.U., and remains popular among teenagers.
The commission opened up an investigation into Snapchat to ensure it meets the DSA by "ensuring a high level of safety, privacy, and security for children online." The investigation will focus on five areas, as Snapchat could be breaching the DSA by exposing minors to grooming attempts and recruitment for criminal purposes, such as sex and human trafficking.
This will address the sale of illegal goods to minors and adults, including the unlawful sale of products like electronic cigarettes, alcohol, narcotics and other criminal materials. Areas under scrutiny include age assurance, inadequate default account settings, the dissemination of information on the sale of prohibited products, and the reporting of illegal content.
Virkkunen
explained, "From grooming and exposure to illegal products to account settings that undermine minors’ safety, Snapchat appears to have overlooked that the Digital Services Act demands high safety standards for all users. With this investigation, we will closely look into their compliance with our legislation."
