The European Commission on Thursday formally charged four major adult content platforms, Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos, with breaching the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) by allowing children to access pornographic material, putting the companies at risk of substantial fines.
The Commission said its investigation, launched in May 2025, found that the four platforms prioritised reputational concerns over the safety of children when internal risk assessments flagged potential dangers to minors. Under the existing access model, a user needed only a single click to confirm they were over 18, a measure the Commission described as wholly inadequate. Other safeguards such as blurred pages and restricted labels were similarly judged insufficient.
“Children are accessing adult content at increasingly younger ages and these platforms must put in place robust, privacy-preserving and effective measures to keep minors off their services,” European Union (EU) tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.
The four companies now have the opportunity to respond to the Commission’s preliminary findings in writing. If ultimately found in breach of the DSA, each risks a fine of up to six percent of its global annual turnover.
In a separate action on the same day, the Commission launched its first investigation into Snapchat under the DSA. The probe centres on whether the platform is doing enough to prevent minors from being exposed to grooming attempts and content linked to illegal activities including drug sales. Snapchat has approximately 97 million monthly active users across the 27-nation bloc and is widely used by teenagers.
Snapchat said it had fully cooperated with the Commission and would continue doing so, adding that user safety and well-being remain a top priority as it continuously reviews and strengthens its safeguards.
The EU actions come one day after a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman through the addictive design of their platforms, a ruling widely seen as a potential watershed moment for global platform accountability. Separately, European Union member states are also running coordinated enforcement actions against smaller adult platforms that fall outside the Commission’s direct jurisdiction under the DSA.
