Age verification for pornographic content seems to be a growing topic in Europe. UK and France are in the process of passing laws to require age verification before accessing adult content. In Germany this has been a requirement since forever. Not sure for other countries in Europe.
However, as a German I have never actually encountered any age verification as a visitor on a porn site and the attempts to DNS block some known sites are laughed upon by most. So do you know what the regulation is in your country and have you ever encountered an age verification? If so was it a paid or did you verify to view free content?
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I am currently working on an adult start up based in Germany and am working through laws, regulations and age verification providers. So coming from theother side I have to say it seems to be quite the challenge to implement the requirements. You can find offers as low as 0,50€ per age verification, but if you have mostly free content with a small fraction of paying users this just seems ridiculous.
In Germany, pornhub always asks if I’m 18, but simply with a button
But in Russia it would also ask to verify using vk state-controlled social media
*A friend of mine told me about that, of course
None at all. Only the very basic “are you 18+” prompts from the site itself.
I’m pretty sure the plans for such laws got put on the shelve
I mean I do click “I’m +18yo” but I’m pretty sure my underage sister can click it just the same
You mean actual age verification with sending ID?
Yes, for that matter – on AdultFriendFinder, not because of any local laws. Back in the day I had to send a scan of my passport. The site was actually great back then, I’m guessing because that filtered out all the non-serious people, and because the ID was actually inaccessible to any European governments.
Generall, it’s a bad idea. Japanese idea of by-id IRL or by-credit-card-access-bankbook online is much more honest – because it’s between you and the shop or between you and the adult company. No suspicious and prurient third parties, like “certification boards” or “the government”.
With the anti-pee and anti-BDSM prudery I’ve seen in the UK and the fact that the laws in France on pornography are about as harsh as laws in Russia, except they’re never applied, I have 0 trust that the UK or France won’t blackmail you or put you on the actual list.
Generally states where a “state religion” (Anglicanism, Catholicism) or “state ideology” is not really a thing of the past, can’t be trusted.
The “are you over 18?”popup ?
It is there since the beginning of porn on the internet
Technical difficulties with implementation of such a age verification system aside. As a Swede I’ve never needed to seriously verify my age on such sites to watch free content. We do not have a law in place that would require such measures. In other words, while the general public sentiment is that porn is for +18 people only our parliament didn’t bother making a law that specifically tell us that no one under the age of 18 may watch porn.
The debate is of course still alive here but when it arises it feel like most people laugh at it and not only because of tech. I guess it’s also a cultural thing. Sweden is a sexually liberated country while politicians who can’t deliver on their promises or who launches a failed project becomes the laughing stock of the week. This combination made the issue a potato that nobody dare to bring to the table.
It’s also a kind of constitutional issue. Information is by tradition considered sacred here. We even got a banned books library (Dawit Isaak-biblioteket) that focuses on providing books banned or censored in other parts of the world.
Do Europeans access different porn sites than everyone else?
I just assumed the whole world was on the same porn sites.
Nothing beyond the age-old “Are you over 18? Y/N” prompts.
Obviously paid content requires you to be old enough to have access to a credit card, but I can’t imagine it being a popular measure to require the upload of an ID. Or an easy/practical one to implement, for that matter.
I only use two porn sites for a very specific type of porn, and those require you to sign up with an account to access them. You have to be 18 or older and the admins will straight up ban anyone who lets slip that they’re younger than that when posting or commenting.
Are you 18?
Yes? Okay seems legit here is hardcore bdsm porn have fun.
That’s about how strict it is
We only that symbolic “are you 18? Yes/no” stuff. We don’t have anything else in place, nor do I know of plans to change that.
I didn’t know it was supposed to be locked in Germany. Hasn’t shown up for me before when on holiday. Then again, maybe it’s because of my vpn