The European Commission has charged major adult-content platforms, including Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos, with breaching EU tech rules over failures to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content.
The charges follow a 10-month investigation under the Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to tackle harmful and illegal content more effectively.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said stronger safeguards are urgently needed.
“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,” she said.
The Commission said the companies failed to apply “objective and thorough methodologies” to assess risks to children, accusing them of prioritising reputational concerns over societal harm.
Regulators also criticised existing safeguards, including self-declaration tools that allow users to confirm they are over 18 with a single click, as well as page blurring and content warnings.
The Commission said such measures are not effective in preventing minors from accessing adult material and called for stronger, privacy-preserving age-verification systems.
Under the rules, companies found in breach could face fines of up to 6 percent of their global annual turnover.
Responding to the preliminary findings, Pornhub owner Aylo said it is reviewing the case and will continue engaging with regulators.
“We have received the European Commission’s preliminary findings and are carefully reviewing them. 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,” the company said.
Aylo added that it shares the goal of protecting minors but warned of challenges with current systems.
“Protecting minors online is a goal we firmly share with the Commission. At the same time, our goal is to get age verification right. Our experience across multiple jurisdictions shows that current website-level age-verification solutions often fail, driving users toward unregulated sites with little or no safety infrastructure, and raising serious data privacy concerns,” it said.
Stripchat did not respond to requests for comment, while contact details for XNXX and XVideos were not immediately available.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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