In this guide
- What the Digital Services Act is
- Why porn sites became “very large online platforms”
- The Stripchat fight in court
- May 2025: formal investigations
- March 2026: the preliminary findings
- What a fine of up to 6% means
- How age checks are supposed to work
- What it means for viewers
- What it means for performers and creators
- My take
I work in an adult industry, and I want to say something clearly before anything else: children should not be watching porn. Not my scenes, not anybody’s. That is not a moral panic. That is basic responsibility, and most performers I know feel the same.
The question is not whether to protect minors. It is how, without destroying privacy for millions of adults. The European Union’s answer is the Digital Services Act, and in 2026 it reached a turning point for the biggest porn sites in the world.
I am not a lawyer. This is an explainer based on official EU documents and news reports.
What the Digital Services Act is
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a European Union regulation that sets rules for online intermediaries and platforms: how they deal with illegal content, how transparent they must be, how they protect users, and especially how they protect minors.
The key concept is size. Platforms with more than 45 million average monthly active users in the EU, roughly 10% of the population, can be designated very large online platforms (VLOPs). VLOPs must do extra work: assess the systemic risks their service creates, take measures to reduce them, submit to independent audits, publish transparency reports and give researchers access to data. And they are supervised directly by the European Commission, not just national regulators (European Commission: list of VLOPs).
Why porn sites became “very large online platforms”
The first VLOPs designated in 2023 were the giants everyone expected: Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon and others. Then, on 20 December 2023, the Commission added three porn platforms: Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos. XNXX was designated later.
That surprised many people outside the industry, but not inside. These sites have audiences as big as mainstream social networks. Their visitors simply do not talk about it at dinner.
For years, the only barrier between a child and the biggest porn sites in Europe was a button that said “I am 18.”
The Stripchat fight in court
Not everyone accepted the label. Stripchat, the webcam platform operated by Technius Ltd, had told the Commission in early 2023 that it had about 31.8 million monthly active users in the EU, below the threshold. The Commission recalculated the same Similarweb data differently, concluded the real figure was more than 62 million unique visitors a month and designated it anyway.
Stripchat challenged the decision. In 2025, the Commission terminated Stripchat’s VLOP designation after its numbers had stayed below 45 million for a full year, although general DSA obligations, including duties to protect minors, continued to apply (Digital Policy Alert). Then, on 14 October 2026, the EU General Court dismissed Stripchat’s challenge to the original designation in its entirety, ruling that the Commission was entitled to rely on its methodology (General Court press release).
The lesson for every platform: arguing about how to count your users will not get you out of European rules.
May 2025: formal investigations
On 27 May 2025, the Commission opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos. The investigations focused on the risks to minors, including the absence of effective age verification. The Commission said it was examining whether the platforms had put in place appropriate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, and to prevent minors from accessing adult content (European Commission).
At the same time, EU member states, through the European Board for Digital Services, launched a coordinated action against smaller porn platforms, which are supervised by national authorities rather than the Commission.
March 2026: the preliminary findings
On 26 March 2026, the Commission announced that it had preliminarily found Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos in breach of the DSA for failing to protect minors from being exposed to pornographic content (European Commission, March 2026).
According to reporting on the findings, the Commission concluded that a one-click “I am 18” self-declaration, blurred previews and warning pages were not effective tools to keep children out, and that the platforms’ risk assessments had put commercial interests ahead of child safety (Reuters; Politico Europe).
The word “preliminary” matters. The companies can now examine the Commission’s file and reply in writing. A final decision comes later.
What a fine of up to 6% means
If the Commission confirms a breach, it can impose fines of up to 6% of a company’s total worldwide annual turnover. It can also order specific changes and impose periodic penalty payments if a company keeps ignoring the rules.
For context, 6% of global turnover is not a parking ticket. For a company of the size of Pornhub’s owner, Aylo, it would be one of the largest regulatory penalties in the history of adult entertainment. I explained the history of that company in who owns Pornhub.
How age checks are supposed to work
The biggest fear around age verification is privacy. Nobody wants to upload a passport to a porn site that might be hacked. The UK experience with Ofcom, which I covered in OnlyFans and the Ofcom age verification fine, shows how messy this can get.
The EU’s answer has been to develop an age verification app, a kind of digital token designed to prove you are over 18 without telling the website who you are. The idea is that the porn site only learns one thing: this person is an adult. It has been piloted in several member states and is meant to fit with the future European digital identity wallets.
Whether that works in practice depends on how easy it is to use, how many sites accept it and how much people trust it. The different national laws in Europe, the US and elsewhere are explained in porn age verification laws.
What it means for viewers
If you are an adult in the EU, expect more friction on the biggest sites: age checks through an app, a third-party provider or your device. Some sites may block certain countries instead, as Aylo did in France in June 2025 under French rules.
My advice: be careful with any site that asks for your ID directly, use trusted methods where possible, and remember that the less personal data you hand over, the better.
What it means for performers and creators
For performers, the DSA cuts two ways.
- Less exposure to minors is good for all of us. Nobody in this industry wants a teenager watching their work.
- Less traffic is likely on the big free tube sites. Age checks reduce casual visits. That could push more viewers toward paid, verified platforms, which is arguably better for performers’ income, or toward shady unregulated sites, which is worse for everyone.
The DSA also requires platforms to handle reports of illegal content, including non-consensual material, more transparently. That matters a lot for performers who have fought to get stolen or leaked content removed.
My take
I have watched this industry ignore the age problem for too long. “Click here if you are 18” was never protection. It was a legal fig leaf. If the EU forces the biggest sites to do better, I am in favour, as long as it is done in a way that protects adults’ privacy too.
What I do not want is a system that pushes kids and adults to worse sites with no rules at all, or one that creates huge databases of who watched what. The EU’s age verification app is the right idea on paper. The test is whether it works in real life.
For the human stories of the women in this industry, read my columns on House of Maximo. Follow my work at maximogarciaworld.com, and for the 18+ side, fuckingpornstars.net.
Sources
- European Commission. Supervision of the designated very large online platforms and search engines under DSA.
- European Commission. Commission opens investigations to safeguard minors from pornographic content under the Digital Services Act. May 2025.
- European Commission. Commission preliminarily finds Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos in breach of the Digital Services Act. March 2026.
- Reuters. Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, XVideos charged with breaching EU tech rules, risk fines. March 2026.
- Politico Europe. EU accuses 4 platforms of failing to stop kids accessing porn.
- General Court of the European Union. Case T-134/24, Technius v Commission, press release No 146/26. October 2026.
- Digital Policy Alert. European Commission terminated very large online platform designation of Stripchat.
