Blocks on German porn sites put spotlight on shifting age-assurance landscape
By Júlia Tar ( May 16, 2025, 15:17 GMT | Comment) -- Germany’s court-ordered blocks of Pornhub and YouPorn over missing age-verification measures highlight growing regulatory pressure on adult platforms — and test the limits of enforcement under the EU’s Digital Services Act. While the DSA requires very large platforms to assess and mitigate risks to minors, it restricts blocking orders to cases involving serious threats to life or safety. The decision also comes amid mounting industry support for age checks at the device or app store level — a model that would shift implementation away from individual platforms.German courts have upheld state media regulators’ blocking orders against two major pornography websites, Pornhub and YouPorn, over their failure to implement an age-verification mechanism at the end of April (see here)....
Prepare for tomorrow’s regulatory change, today
MLex identifies risk to business wherever it emerges, with specialist reporters across the globe providing exclusive news and deep-dive analysis on the proposals, probes, enforcement actions and rulings that matter to your organization and clients, now and in the longer term.
Know what others in the room don’t, with features including:
- Daily newsletters for Antitrust, M&A, Trade, Data Privacy & Security, Technology, AI and more
- Custom alerts on specific filters including geographies, industries, topics and companies to suit your practice needs
- Predictive analysis from expert journalists across North America, the UK and Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific
- Curated case files bringing together news, analysis and source documents in a single timeline
Experience MLex today with a 14-day free trial.