The European Union added three major pornography providers to the list of websites that require age verification technology.

Pornhub, Xvideos and Stripchat have been designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which require extra steps to protect minors from harmful content. 

The measures include the age checking technology that will prevent children from accessing pornographic content, with the European Commission proposing the upcoming European Digital Identity wallet to be incorporated in the VLOPs.

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VLOPs are internet resources that have at least 45 million users inside the bloc. 

The three porn providers will have four months since 20 December - the date of designation - to comply with a number of legal obligations, such as

• extra measures to combat the distribution of illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material and deepfake pornography;
• stronger protections against minors visiting their websites, with age verification tools as a must-have solution among these;
• regular risk assessments to ensure compliance with the DSA provisions, including independent/external audit.

The E.U. Commission will review the compliance; failure to abide by the new rules is liable to a fine of up to 6% of their global turnover. Officials consider obliging all porn websites to introduce age checking tools in the future.

The VLOP list include such platforms as Facebook, Instagram, Bing, LinkedIn, Pininterest, Snapchat, Wikipedia, Google (Search, Play, Maps, Shopping), YouTube, Amazon, TikTok, X (former Twitter), AppStore, Booking.com, Alibaba, and Zalando.

The DSA took effect last August. A few month later, the European Commission demanded X to do more to combat disinformation.