The purpose is to protect children from harmful content on the internet. This includes, among other things, content related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders as well as pornography.
Websites that contain or risk containing such material will now be held responsible for taking sufficient measures such as facial recognition or identification via credit card, to check the users' age.
Around 6,000 sites, including X and the dating app Grindr as well as pure porn sites, have already agreed to introduce stricter restrictions. The websites that do not do enough to ensure that their users are of legal age can be fined up to 18 million pounds, equivalent to 230 million kronor.
A similar regulation exists in France. There, people must verify their age to be able to enter porn sites.
In the spring, the EU Commission launched a formal investigation into a number of major porn sites on the internet. According to a preliminary investigation, several of them do not do enough to ensure that minors are protected from the material.
Since 2023, a few major porn sites have also been monitored by the EU under the Data Act DSA. This means, among other things, that the sites' work to counter harmful content, such as assault material, must be tightened.
