The porn portal xHamster is blocked in Germany. The KJM found that xHamster's freely available pornographic offering was a violation of child protection and therefore unlawful.
The porn site “xHamster” has been blocked from the internet by the Commission for Youth Media Protection (KJM) of the German state media authorities. The reason for this was that the provider violated the protection of minors and had not taken sufficient precautions to protect the site from access by minors. The KJM states that this violates the State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media (JMStV) . As a first step, the five largest German providers must now block the porn portal xHamster. “The notices requesting that the “de.xhamster.com” offer be blocked from access from Germany have already been sent to the five largest German network operators. They could still take legal action against this,” says the Süddeutsche Zeitung. ( Source ) Internet providers include Telekom and Vodafone, for example.
Dr. Marc Jan Eumann, Chairman of the KJM:
“Porn is not a children’s program. Our legal mandate is to protect children and young people from content that does not correspond to their level of development. Pornography poses a significant threat to their mental and sexual development. Offering porn to adults is not a problem as long as technical protective measures ensure the legal standards for the protection of children and young people. Since xHamster doesn't do this, we resort to blocking orders as a last resort. We protect children, not the porn industry’s business model.” ( Source )
No child protection – no porn portal
The background is that the xHamster portal offers pornographic content for children and young people without any access restrictions. It is legally required that the age of users is checked, according to a statement by Albrecht Bähr, chairman of the committee chairs' conference of the state media authorities and chairman of the assembly of the Rhineland-Palatinate media authority. The provider of xHamster, based in Cyprus, refused to use a so-called age verification system. The North Rhine-Westphalia State Media Authority unsuccessfully asked the portal operators to introduce age verification for users. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, xHamster said: “Network blocks are 'far from an optimal solution'. As a result, young people would simply switch to smaller sites where they would be exposed to more extreme content. The company is ready to work with the German authorities and use age verification. But this must happen industry-wide.” ( Source )
Since xHamster has not complied with the request for age verification, the KJM and the state media authorities have blocking orders against Internet providers as a last resort. “If xHamster adheres to the law and carries out an age check, it can continue to distribute its offer.” The blocking order is the last resort. ( Source )
Behind xHamster is the company Hammy Media Ltd., run by two Russians. based in Cyprus. The closure was preceded by years of running the gauntlet. ( Here )
Sources:
Commission for Youth Media Protection (kam): Youth Media Protection State Treaty (JMStV)
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Porn portal xHamster is blocked on the internet
Commission for Youth Media Protection (kjm): KJM decides to block xHamster
The media authorities: GVK welcomes the action of the Commission for Youth Media Protection against the porn portal
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Over for porn portal
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )