Providers should block the porn portal xHamster

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The high-reach porn portal xHamster is threatened with a network ban

Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa

The Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM) has decided to block the porn portal xHamster.

The five largest providers in Germany were asked by the authorities to refuse their customers access to the controversial website with immediate effect.

With the escalation, the authorities are drawing a line under an almost two-year process.

Offers like xHamster had ignored the strict German youth protection regulations.

German providers could hardly compete on the porn market, while several corporations, especially those based in Cyprus, took over the industry almost completely.

With the blocking order, the supervisory authorities are using their strongest means.

The media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia had previously asked the operator Hammy Media and the technical provider of the portal to use a youth protection system that met the strict German requirements.

In addition, the authorities had asked the largest Internet providers to voluntarily block the offers.

The refused, however, a blockade on acclamation.

»Protect children, not business models«

Now companies should no longer have a choice.

The KJM announced on Thursday that the official blocking orders had already been delivered by the responsible state media authorities.

"A porn offer for adults is not a problem as long as technical protective measures ensure the legal standards for the protection of children and young people," explains the KJM chairman Marc Jan Eumann.

However, since xHamster refuses to do so, the only thing that remains is the blocking order.

"We protect children, not the business model of the porn industry," says Eumann.

In recent years, the Commission has intensified the fight against freely available pornography.

In a recent article on the KJM website, the psychologist Tabea Freitag describes the confrontation of children with sexualised content as "a type of sexual abuse".

The youth protection officers accuse the portals of conveying a distorted image of sexuality and thus normalizing violence and other forms of sexual abuse.

Lawsuits from competitors unsuccessful

A representative of Hammy Media Ltd had repeatedly signaled a willingness to talk to the media last year.

According to the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, the authority is now in contact with a lawyer for the company, but the offer has not yet been adjusted.

Xhamster is just one of the portals against which the authorities are taking action.

Pornhub, YouPorn and Mydirtyhobby filed a lawsuit against a possible ban with the Düsseldorf Administrative Court last year, but failed in the summary proceedings.

The urgent proceedings are currently before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster.

If the porn providers are also defeated here, further blocking orders could follow.

Other processes could follow.

Several providers have already announced in advance that they want to legally review a blocking order and, if necessary, even sue.

However, the administrative courts in North Rhine-Westphalia had already declared a blocking order by the Düsseldorf district government from 2002 to be lawful.

The blocks, which were directed against a US neo-Nazi website, among other things, are still active.

And a year ago, several providers agreed to block illegal streaming portals without an official order.

In France, Pornhub verifies age

The pressure on porn portals is also increasing in other European countries.

For example, the British government is working on a law called the »Online Safety Bill«, which, among other things, requires porn providers to verify their age, but is making only slow progress.

The French media regulator also threatened several porn portals with bans.

According to a report by »Le Figaro«, at least Pornhub has integrated external age verification services for French users.

If the portals also retrofit in Germany, they could still prevent the locks.