Like many others, we’re being forced into adjusting our business model to comply with age restrictions in the UK.
After assessing our adult community website we seem to be left with only 3 options:
Implement a paid system of age-check (free for the user), we don’t know how much this is likely to cost us but we expect it will be beyond our operational budget.
Remove/censor all adult visual media.
Implement a low-cost subscription model, via CCBill.
We’re leaning toward option 3 and considering a $1 p/m charge. We hope this will be low enough to allow users to justify the expense while giving us the security of compliance and perhaps offsetting the potential loss of affiliate sales. This would mean we don’t have to change anything for the visitor.
A business contact also suggested this might be a great opportunity to filter out the noise and develop a more dedicated reader base, lowing usage of the site while distilling the audience down to those far more engaged than the average passer-by.
What are your opinions on this? We have several thousand regular readers but we also understand how hard it is to convince people into yet another subscription, even if it is low.
It’s been perhaps ten years or more since I investigated using CCBill, so if you have any experience with this do you see it as a viable option?
Oh, I suppose I should describe the community a little…
I don’t want to seem spammy so I won’t link it.
It’s a male masturbation community. We have a forum, user-submitted experiences/personals/events, fiction, advice, polls, affiliate content to promote the likes of EastBoys and EnglishLads.
It’s basically an affiliate blog but with a bunch of community-minded content tacked-on.
Does using just CCBill actually cover you for age check? Is this an acceptable form in the UK?
Option 4, would be to transfer ownership of the site to someone outside and share revenue with them. However probably only a temporary solution as age check might happen in more places.
That’s an interesting question. I had perhaps just assumed CCBill already did this. Seems a little idiotic if they don’t, when so many of their business customers will have to put up TWO barriers to entry.
I don’t think transferring ownership is an option. As you say, this is going to continue across the internet until we have a two-tier system. States will just start blocking any websites that don’t comply with their local laws. While that might be pointless due to VPN it’s still probably going to hit the adult industry enough to make moving anything redundant.
We’d rather just go fully PG with all visual media and shut down direct messaging. At least we can still offer censored content and put the responsibility on the sponsors.
I’m pretty sure ccbill doesn’t count as age verfication…
Perhaps for you its best maybe to go PG at least on the outside and if people join they can see more and hopefully no one will join and then check to see if there is adult inside.
The main issue though at least for me, its all very vague. What counts as porn? Is it context, meaning even just text could be seen as porn or does it only apply to images and videos?
From what I’ve read about the UK legislation it only refers to visual media, but this is likely to be strict and cover all nudity.
As usual, they’re not clarifying specifics, because if they did it would reveal how stupid most of this nonsense is and how it’s all going to slide into insanity.
We’re probably going to see challenges to any site displaying Michelangelo’s David, for example. Then we’ll have arguments about displaying nipples.
Why is it that a penis has to be censored in a photo but I don’t have to censor a dildo for a retail site?
Are sex toy companies going to have to do the same? Apparently there’s ZERO mention of that anywhere.
Just paying doesn’t count. You can choose CC payment as a form of verification, but it does not apply everywhere and definitely not for Visa and MC debit cards. Payment gateways don’t offer any verification as far as i know, but if you charge $1 (that won’t cover your cost there btw)you could use that payment to cover a verification service in part.
Have any of you considered posting more non-porn content? Maybe then you will fall under the same category as X, many places there is a % threshold (30 rings a bell) so if you have 70% G - rated posts, you may be OK. someone legal here to debunk me?
There’s very little softcore content. Let alone any sponsors who’s got softcore tours or any plans with what to do.
I think we’re at the stage now when everyone is just waiting to see who does something first or rather who gets done. One of the issues is also who wants to be first? As long as there’s a large amount of sites which offer full hardcore with no age verification you’re doomed going softcore. Plus there’s no guarantee that softcore is acceptable. There’s just no guidelines.
Take my example. I could go softcore as I have reviews and erotic stories, both could easily be switched to non-hardcore. But I would have to drop my blog and videos which pulls in a lot of traffic. But even if I do that, I don’t know how they would look at erotic stories or reviews for that matter, is it porn and needs to be age checked?
And if you think a bit further ahead, how many large programs can survive with loosing a lot of their affiliates? Many smaller and medium ones or the ones that can’t comply would just close shop. It’s a domino effect surely? Or if not survive then how many would still find it worth the trouble running an affiliate program?
I think the only way the adult business can survive is if there’s a free way of doing age verification. Or possibly all porn sites just use one age verification system. That would change everything, potentially less free porn available, we wouldn’t have to worry about the “porn damaging young people” and all that. It could even be good for the business. But either of those happening is very unlikely.
I’ve spoken to some users and the general feeling is they don’t seem to care much, they know about it but don’t feel it will affect them. They don’t see the bigger picture of what the impact might be. And they just seem to accept it without complaints.
As said before, if you have a US company than block the states. Thats enough. It also blocks VPNs from these states. Some seemingly tried it with bluered tours, like the most recent example MetArt (str8) and its sites. Still the Kansas attorney general does now go after them.
If your outside of the US and try to limit your US exposure as much as possible (dont use US host and so on), you are mostly safe. Mostly because they dont go right now after cases where you need to first establish US jurisdiction over the company. But dont think thats not possible. A year ago exactly that happend to xvideos parent company who also runs flirt4free. The court established US jurisdiction over them. Was about a illegal video, i think it was about rape if i remember the case well.
So others doing it well to move from the US back to EU. That offers some sort of protection for now.
But age verification is coming no matter what. In france your since 11.01. forced to utilize age check, in germany its the case for years. Thats why most porn companies left germany years ago. Or Romeo.com who once was based in Berlin moved to the Netherlands. Although for germany there might come harsh restrictions in place soon. They talk about forcing financial Institutions to end cooperation if age checks are not in place for the companies sites.
And its also a requirement from the DSA. The Commission is working on a harmonization. I guess we will see it 2026.
There is actually already a age check for france and germany which is free and open source and even aproved by the regulatory bodies of the two countries.
I would still rather wait for the digital european identity if possible.
But you already see things moving in the market. Again in the str8 market more as its bigger. Byborg (LiveJasmin), did buy a quite big french production 2 months ago, did grab Playboy license and yesterday they bought Gamma. Age Checks and this increased consolidation is not a coincidence, its a result. People pull out. And there are rumors that there will be more of this in the next months.