A report released by the European Commission on Thursday accused social media platform Snapchat as well as four online porn sites of endangering the rights and well-being of children by allowing them to access adult content on their platforms.
The Commission said that underage users can access sites by clicking on a button confirming that they are 18 years of age, rather than being asked to provide reliable age verification.
The lack of serious oversight violates EU digital rules and could leave the companies concerned facing heavy fines.
In addition to Snapchat, the European Commission also set its sights on Pornhub, StripChat, XNXX and XVideos, accusing all of them of failing to adequately enforce age restrictions on adult content.
“In the EU, online platforms have a responsibility,” said European Commission Vice President Hanna Virkkunen. “Children are accessing adult content at an increasingly younger age and these platforms must take strong, privacy-protecting and effective measures to keep minors away from their services.”
The Commission will now present the companies with itself preliminary findingsAfter which they are expected to take steps to comply with EU digital law.
If companies fail to do so, they risk fines equal to 6% of their annual global revenue.
Tech companies are violating the EU Digital Services Act
The social media platform Snapchat has also come under scrutiny for similar reasons, namely whether the platform is doing enough to protect children and youth from accessing adult content.
The European Commission suspects the company failed to prevent children from using the platform, exposing minors to myriad risks – including cyber-grooming and attempted criminal recruitment – According to a press release.
“From exposure to grooming and illegal products, to account settings that weaken the protection of minors, Snapchat has ignored that the Digital Services Act demands high protection standards for all users,” European Commission Vice President Virkkunen said in a statement.
“With this investigation, we will be closely monitoring their compliance with our law,” he said.
The Commission’s investigation is looking at whether Snapchat is enforcing its minimum age requirement (users must be 13 years old to access the site), and whether it is taking steps to protect children from predators.
The US company says it will cooperate with EU authorities, claiming to “raise the security level”.
EU online age verification app in the works
Although Snapchat and other social media companies have set minimum age limits to prevent individuals from accessing content, the European Commission has described the steps taken so far as inadequate.
In response, the European Union has attempted to develop its own age-verification app, which would allow users to confirm their age without sharing personal data with tech companies.
The app is expected to be available by early 2027.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico