Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat are subject to strict rules in the European Union

Porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat will have to deal with stricter rules in the European Union, reports The Verge.

The fact is that these sites are categorized as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) under the European Digital Services Act (DSA).

According to the European Commission, these sites “meet the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU”. Therefore, they have until February 2024 to fulfill their obligations under the DSA.

For example, it means stricter requirements for verifying the age of users. Websites will also be required to conduct risk assessments and reduce the spread of illegal content, including materials depicting child sexual abuse and fake pornography.

Other requirements include passing an external audit, publishing reports on content moderation decisions, and making data publicly available to researchers.

In the spring, the European Commission announced an initial list of 17 very large online platforms and two very large search engines. The list includes, in particular: Amazon, App Store, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and Google Search. However, this list did not include any service specializing in pornography.

Services are considered VLOPs if they have at least 45 million monthly active users in the block. XVideos claimed to have 160 million “average monthly recipients” of its services in the EU.

Pornhub, on the other hand, claimed to have 33 million monthly users. Its inclusion in the list means that the EU does not believe these numbers. XHamster reported 32 million monthly users, and YouPorn reported 7.2 million.

In October, a group of 30 non-governmental organizations claimed that the numbers cited by some major porn platforms were “surprisingly low.” With this in mind, they insisted that large porn sites should be classified as VLOPs.