Pornhub and three other porn sites investigated by European Union regulators over child safety concerns
Four major pornography websites, including Pornhub, are under investigation by European Union regulators.
The sites, Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX, and Stripchat, are being investigated over potential breaches of the bloc’s strict online content laws, specifically those designed to protect minors.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said on Monday that it had opened proceedings under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping set of online safety regulations aimed at holding internet platforms accountable for harmful content and lack of user protections. Violations could lead to fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual revenue.
The Commission said the investigation would prioritise the protection of children, focusing on “risks to protection of minors, including dangers associated with the lack of effective age verification measures.”
In a statement, it added: “The pornography sites had failed to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to a high-level safety and security for minors, especially when it came to age verification tools designed to prevent minors from getting to adult content.”
The EU said the companies were also lacking “risk assessment and mitigation measures” concerning the impact of their platforms on users’ mental and physical well-being, and had failed to meet the obligations required of Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA.
While Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX, and Stripchat were all initially designated as VLOPs subject to the highest regulatory scrutiny, the Commission has since granted Stripchat’s request to be removed from the list, citing insufficient user numbers.
EU officials are also developing an age verification app for online platforms to use across the bloc. The tool, expected to be available by summer 2025, would allow companies to confirm a user is over 18 without collecting additional personal data.
The launch of this investigation follows a public consultation on child safety and proposed tools such as “age estimation” methods to restrict minors’ access to explicit or harmful content.
The Commission confirmed that while major platforms would be investigated at EU level, smaller pornography sites would be monitored and enforced by individual member states’ digital regulators under the same legislation.
None of the platforms responded immediately to requests for comment.