Commission opens investigations to safeguard minors from pornographic content under the Digital Services Act

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The DSA aims to ensure a safer environment online for minors, in this context, the Commission has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos for suspected breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

In parallel, Member States, coming together in the European Board for Digital Services, are taking a coordinated action against smaller pornographic platforms. These actions will reinforce the Commission’s effort to protect minors from harmful content online, both as regards very large adult platforms supervised by the Commission and smaller ones that fall under the supervision of the Digital Services Coordinators.

Investigations into Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos

The Commission’s investigations into Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos focus on the risks for the protection of minors, including those linked to the absence of effective age verification measures. The Commission preliminarily found that the platforms do not comply with putting in place: 

• Appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, in particular with age verification tools to safeguard minors from adult content. 
• Risk assessment and mitigation measures of any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users, and to prevent minors from accessing adult content, notably via appropriate age verification tools.

Protecting young users online is one of the key enforcement priorities under the DSA. Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services. If proven, failure to comply with these requirements would constitute infringements of the DSA. The opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge its outcome and is without prejudice to any other proceeding that the Commission may decide to initiate on any other conduct that may constitute an infringement under the DSA.

In parallel, the Commission is announcing the termination of the designation of Stripchat as a Very Large Online Platform. This follows a request by Stripchat and an assessment by the Commission which concluded that Stripchat’s number of average monthly active recipients in the EU had been lower than the relevant threshold for an uninterrupted period of one year. Stripchat’s obligations as a Very Large Online Platform will cease to apply four months from its de-designation. General obligations, including the obligation to ensure a high level of protection of minors on its service, will continue to apply to Stripchat. The supervision of Stripchat’s compliance with the DSA will rest on Cyprus Radiotelevision Authority, the DSC of the Member State where Stripchat is established.

Coordinated action

In addition, the Member States, in the European Board for Digital Services, have launched a coordinated action to protect minors as regards pornographic content on smaller platforms. These smaller platforms fall under the supervision of the respective national Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) of the Member State where they are established. The action complements the Commission’s opening of proceedings against the very large adult-content platforms and ensures that the DSA is applied consistently across the EU.

Next Steps

The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority and will continue to gather evidence, which can include sending additional requests for information, conducting interviews or inspections. 

The opening of formal proceedings empowers the Commission to take further enforcement steps, such as adopting interim measures and non-compliance decisions. The Commission is also empowered to accept commitments made by Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos to remedy the issues raised in the proceedings.

Background

On the basis of the research conducted so far, based among others on the analysis of the risk assessment and audit reports sent by Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos in June and December 2024, as well as on the replies to the Commission’s Requests for Information to Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos, the Commission has decided to open formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos under the Digital Services Act.

On 12 May 2025, the Commission launched a public consultation on its draft guidelines on the protection of minors online, which aim to assist online platforms in ensuring a high level of privacy, safety and security for children online. The draft guidelines set out a non-exhaustive list of measures against online risks for minors, including the implementation of age verification and age estimation methods to restrict access to age-inappropriate content for minors.

Moreover, the Commission, in close collaboration with Member States, is developing a white label age-verification app, intended to bridge the gap until the EU Digital Wallet becomes available by the end of 2026. The app, based on the same technology as the EU Digital Wallet, can be implemented by the Member States and then used by online service providers to verify if the user is over 18 without revealing further identity information, thus fully respecting their privacy. The app will be available by summer 2025.