Erotic portal xHamster threatens network blocking

The erotic and porn portal xHamster is one of the providers with the widest reach on the Internet. However, the provider is now threatened with a network block due to disregard for the protection of children and young people.

Network block against xHamster

Due to disregard of child and youth protection in the area of online pornography, the porn portal xHamster is now threatened with a complete block in Germany. Authorities have already taken up the matter.

Tobias Schmid, director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur: “In the case of xHamster, we have a final decision against which no further appeals are possible”.

xHamster has also so far refused any communication with the supervisory authority and has not implemented any of the required measures to legalize its offer. Therefore, the authorities had now directly approached the network operators and informed them about the fact that illegal content is offered on the operator’s website.

The legal situation is quite clear from the point of view of his authority: “It is pornography, there is no age verification and German law is applicable”, says Tobias Schmid. Other portal operators are currently still taking legal action against the notices affecting them before the Higher Administrative Court for North Rhine-Westphalia.

Review of the facts is ongoing

Both Telekom and Vodafone are currently still reviewing the case. Access blocks would only be technically implemented if ordered by law, a Telekom spokesperson is quoted as saying. Vodafone is also currently still examining the legal situation, it is said.

The portal xHamster stated in response to a dpa inquiry that network blocks are “far from an optimal solution. Young people would merely switch to smaller sites that also offer more extreme pornographic content.  The company is prepared to cooperate with the German authorities, he said. Currently, age checks are the only way to keep young people away from adult content. It would be possible to use such technology. But this would have to be done industry-wide.

Schmid sees a problem in the easy accessibility of such illegal content, which is no longer a problem for young people and children, especially in this day and age. “Every 12-year-old has a smartphone today and can switch from Tiktok to these offers.”

Parents would not have the same opportunity to check the Internet use of their children in this day and age through access via smartphone or tablet. Apparently, guardians also see this as a problem.

In a representative opinion poll commissioned by the Kinderhilfswerk, 93 percent of parents surveyed were in favor of reliable age checks and tougher penalties for violations. The state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia had only imposed an access ban on three porn portals based in Cyprus at the beginning of December.