Porn site xhamster.com may not have so-called amateur videos online if it is not clear whether permission has been given for their posting by all the people in the picture. This has been decided by the court of Amsterdam in summary proceedings brought by Expertise Bureau Online Child Abuse (EOKM).
The expertise center has long established that some porn sites publish so-called amateur images without explicit permission. “We then receive requests to help remove the material, something that is not always easy,” said director Arda Gerkens of the expertise center earlier.
xhamster.com, operated by the Cypriot company Hammy Media, contains not only professional porn, but also a lot of images with recognizable persons performing sexual acts in private. According to the EOKM, websites such as xhamster.com must guarantee that those involved have given permission for the posting of videos with naked material.
Now these videos can be uploaded without adequately checking the consent of those involved. “That has to be reversed”, says Gerkens: “Let these sites demonstrate that there is permission for this.”
Successful lawsuit
In 2020, EOKM filed a case against the porn site vagina.nl on the same issue. Successfully. “The court then ruled that it is unlawful to publish these types of images, unless the operator has ensured that everyone in the image agrees to publication. Now it is high time that operators also adhere to this”, says Hanna van Til of Boekx Advocaten.
In the defense, Hammy Media says it has a policy that is aimed at not publishing any illegal images. In its own words, the company checks all images before publication.
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