The European Commission initiated an investigation into four significant pornographic websites last week, alleging that they have failed to adhere to regulations that safeguard juveniles from accessing pornography.

Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos, the websites under investigation, are accused of failing to adequately safeguard minors from accessing the explicit content on their platforms.

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which was implemented in 2022 and applies to all platforms within the bloc, is fundamentally concerned with the prevention of juveniles from accessing pornography.

New laws have been enacted in over a dozen states, resulting in restrictions on pornography. The Supreme Court will now provide its opinion.

The European Commission issued a statement on last week emphasizing the necessity of “appropriate and proportionate measures” to guarantee the safety of minors online.

EU stated that “online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services.”

The European Commission claimed that the websites under investigation do not employ effective age verification tools to prevent minors from viewing detrimental content.

“The online environment should be a secure space for children to learn and connect. Our primary objective is to safeguard minors and enable them to safely navigate the internet,” stated Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice president for digital sovereignty, security, and democracy at the European Commission, in a statement released last week.

The EU announced in December 2023 that Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos had been added to its list of “very large online platforms.”

This classification subjected them to more stringent standards under the DSA, including age verification, content moderation, and transparency.

The commission announced that Stripchat would no longer be classified as a VLOP due to the fact that the site’s average monthly active recipients in the EU are below the threshold required for this classification.

Despite this de-designation, the commission emphasized that Stripchat will still be required to maintain a “high level of protection of minors on its service” in accordance with the DSA.

According to the commission statement, the EU is in the process of creating an age-verification application that will enable users to verify their age without disclosing any additional personal information online.

It was further stated that the application will be accessible this summer.