EU Commission finds major porn platforms may be breaching child protection rules under DSA

The European Commission has preliminarily found that Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos may be in breach of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) for failing to adequately protect minors from accessing pornographic content.

The DSA is an EU law that requires large online platforms to assess and reduce risks to users, including risks to children. In this case, the Commission concluded that the platforms did not properly evaluate how minors could access their services. Their assessments were found to focus more on business risks, such as reputational damage, rather than on harm to children.

The Commission also found that the platforms’ safeguards were ineffective. Although the services are officially restricted to adults, users can access them by simply confirming they are over 18. The Commission considers this self-declaration insufficient. Other measures, such as content warnings or blurred images, were also deemed inadequate.

As a result, the Commission indicates that stronger systems, such as privacy-preserving age verification, may be required to comply with EU rules.

These findings are preliminary and do not represent a final decision. The companies have the opportunity to respond, review the evidence, and take corrective action. If the conclusions are confirmed, the Commission could impose fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover.

The investigation is part of broader EU efforts to enforce the DSA and strengthen online protections for minors. It also connects to ongoing work on an EU-wide age verification system, which is being developed as a potential standard for verifying users’ age while protecting privacy.