Cypriot websites Pornhub, Stripchat found to have broken EU law on protecting minors

Cypriot websites Pornhub and Stripchat have been preliminarily found by the European Commission to have violated the European Union’s digital services act by failing to protect minors from being exposed to pornographic content.

According to the commission, the two websites, alongside two others which are not based in Cyprus, “did not diligently identify and assess the risks that their platforms pose to minors accessing their services”.

It added that “even where risks were identified”, the four websites “did not conduct a thorough assessment, as they did not use objective and thorough methodologies”.

To this end, it said that the assessments carried out “disproportionately emphasised business-centric concerns, such as reputational damage, rather than focusing on the societal risks to minors”, as the digital services act requires.

Limassol-based Stripchat was also accused of having either misrepresented or not having considered meetings with civil society organisations specialising in children’s rights and age assurance tools.

The commission went on to say that all four websites “have failed to implement effective measures to prevent minors from accessing their services, therefore, failing to protect minors’ rights and wellbeing”.

“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,” it added, stressing that “’self-declaraton’ is not an effective measure”.

It added that what it described as “additional mitigation measures” undertaken by the websites, including page blurring, content warnings, and labels indicating that content is “restricted to adults” are inadequate and “do not effectively prevent minors from accessing harmful content”.

To this end, it said that all four websites “need to implement privacy preserving age verification measures to protect children from harmful content”.

Regarding its next steps, the commission said that all four websites will now “have the possibility to examine the documents in the commission’s investigation files and reply in writing to the commission’s preliminary findings”.

However, it said, if the commission’s findings are confirmed by the European board for digital services, it will then have the power to issue a non-compliance decision and thus issue fines.

It said that those fines will not exceed six-per-cent of the total worldwide annual turnover of each provider. It is estimated that both Dali-based Pornhub’s owner Aylo and Stripchat’s owner Technicius both have annual revenues reaching nine-figure sums.

European Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen, meanwhile, said of the findings that “online platforms have a responsibility”.

“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, adding that the EU is “ensuring that children are properly protected online, as they have the right to be”.