Media authorities want to cut Pornhub off from payment transactions
The German media watchdogs want to enforce the legal blocking of Pornhub and YouPorn. Payments from all users are to be blocked.
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The state media authorities want to force financial service providers to refuse payments to erotic portals such as Pornhub and Youporn – including payments from adults. The legal basis for this is the new Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media (JMStV).
The chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM), Marc Jan Eumann, explained this to the Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd). "Only if the porn providers lose reach and revenue can we get them to give in when it comes to the protection of minors in the media," said Eumann, explaining the financial blocks. The state media watchdogs have been taking action against porn sites for five years.
This is based on an enforceable injunction issued in June 2020 by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM) against the platform operator Aylo, which is based in Cyprus, to ensure the protection of minors with stricter age controls. As a result, several media authorities issued blocking orders in 2024. The method of choice is to manipulate the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS).
New measures against mirror domains
Meanwhile, three administrative courts and two higher administrative courts have rejected urgent applications by Aylo to temporarily suspend the DNS blockades and declared the orders to be immediately enforceable. The Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court (OVG) recently confirmed that access to Pornhub and Youporn via the provider 1&1 should remain blocked for now. DNS blocks are easy for end users to circumvent. Technical tricks also help the operator to keep the portals accessible in Germany.
Videos by heise
Until now, providers have often used so-called mirror domains to circumvent blockades, says Eumann. These differ only slightly from the original address. The director of the Rhineland-Palatinate Media Authority emphasizes that the amended JMStV will also make it easier for regulators to take action against this. The highly controversial amendment, which prescribes general porn filters at operating system level, is currently being discussed in the state parliaments and is due to come into force on December 1. Eumann told epd that studies have shown that pornography is more harmful to minors than, for example, non-sexually motivated depictions of violence in a TV thriller.
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