Pornhub and two other adult sites are suing the European Union over a landmark digital content law, the Digital Services Act, which imposes age verification and other obligations on large platforms. The European Commission last year named Pornhub, Xvideos and Stripchat as a category of “very large online platform” under the act, which includes obligations such as age verification measures for minors and creating a library of adverts published on their sites. Companies that fall foul of the law can be fined up to six percent of their global turnover. This lawsuit follows similar legal challenges by online retailers Amazon and Zalando.
In fact I don’t personally agree with doing it here, but I mean, there is no other way to do age verification. There are technically ways that can make sure the only data reaching the end customer (the porn site) is a boolean (minor or not), and the identity verification is generally done by another entity, but ultimately yes I agree, I wouldn’t do it either and I personally think it’s not worth in this case at all (I think proper sex education in school is probably what I would invest on).
There is also another thing to consider though, which is that porn is different from -say- a gambling site (where you have to make identity verification) mostly due to religious/moral stigma on sex. This makes me a little bit conflicted because I would like a society in which sex is freed from stigma and shame, and where “associate yourself with a porn site” is not as bad as it is now. Definitely the age verification is not the way to pursue this objective, but overall this makes me ask questions like "why would I have not a problem doing the same for a gambling site but I would for porn? Does it align with my values or is it coming from cultural pressure I disagree with?
But why does it need age verification in the first place? Any horny teenager will find a way to look at porn, this only makes them seek out less reputable sources.
Besides, when I was that age we didn’t have any of that, and I didn’t degenerate into a weird hypersexual either despite looking at copious amounts.
This is a separate discussion, on which tbh I have not a strong opinion. I can understand the risks of children without proper sexual education consuming porn, but I also understand the pointless nature of trying to block it.