Adult site compliance — 2257, age verification, DMCA

This is general information, not legal advice, and the rules are moving fast. If you host explicit media or process payments, talk to a lawyer who works in this space. If you run a directory or a tool, the exposure is smaller but not zero. Here is the landscape.

18 U.S.C. § 2257 — records of performers

US federal law requires the producer of sexually explicit visual content to keep records proving every performer was 18+, with a compliance statement on the site naming a records custodian and address.

• If you produce explicit content (film it, commission it, or edit third-party clips into a compilation), this applies to you fully. You need the records and the custodian.
• If you only link to and screenshot other sites — a directory — you are not a producer. The standard position, stated on a compliance page, is that all visual content is automated screenshots for documentation and that § 2257 records are held by the operators of the sites you link to. Our own version is a template you can adapt.
• Secondary producers (sites that host content someone else made) have had a lighter records obligation since FSC v. Gonzales, but the safe practice is still to have signed 2257 paperwork from whoever supplied the content.

Age verification for visitors — the 2024–2026 wave

Separate from § 2257. This is about proving the visitor is an adult.

• United States: starting with Louisiana in 2023, roughly 20 states now require real age verification (ID check, credit-card auth, or age-estimation) for sites where more than one-third of the content is "material harmful to minors." Enforcement is mostly via private lawsuits and state AGs. Some large sites (Pornhub) have geo-blocked entire states rather than comply. The Supreme Court upheld the Texas version in 2025, so more states will follow.
• United Kingdom: the Online Safety Act requires "highly effective" age assurance for pornographic content, enforced by Ofcom, phasing in through 2025.
• European Union: the DSA pushes "very large" adult platforms toward age verification; individual states (France, Germany) have their own regimes.

Who this hits: sites that display explicit media directly and are more than one-third adult. A click-through disclaimer is no longer sufficient for those sites in the covered jurisdictions.

Who it mostly does not hit (yet): a directory or review site that hosts no explicit media of its own, and tools with no explicit media. The one-third threshold and "material harmful to minors" definitions matter here — a text-and-screenshot directory generally falls outside, but the line is being tested and varies by state.

If you do cross the threshold: integrate a dedicated provider (Yoti, AgeChecked, VerifyMy, Incode, k-ID). Do not store ID documents yourself — the provider returns a yes/no and you keep only that.

DMCA — copyright takedowns

• Register a DMCA agent with the US Copyright Office (about $6, online). This gives you safe-harbour protection for user-submitted or third-party content, provided you act on valid notices.
• Publish a takedown process and an email address. Act promptly on valid notices.
• A directory that screenshots sites will get takedown notices for screenshots. A valid one gets the image removed; the profile can drop to text-only. Keep the process documented.
• Repeat-infringer policy: you must have one and enforce it if you host user uploads.

Payment and card-network rules

If you take card payments, Visa and Mastercard impose adult-specific rules beyond the law:

• Documented consent and age verification for every performer in content you monetise (this is why paysites now require model IDs and signed releases per scene).
• Content review and removal processes.
• Chargeback thresholds that will terminate your merchant account if crossed.

These are enforced by your processor (CCBill, Segpay, etc.), not a court, and they can act instantly. See how adult sites make money.

Data protection

GDPR (EU/UK) and a growing set of US state privacy laws apply to adult sites like any other, and sexual-preference data is a special category under GDPR — higher bar for consent and security. Practical minimum: no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies without consent, a real privacy policy, IP anonymisation on analytics, and a way for someone to ask what you hold. Our approach.

The risk map, ranked

1. Payment processor rules — enforced instantly, no appeal, can end the business overnight.
2. Age-verification law — expensive to comply with, a moving target, but mostly hits direct-media sites.
3. § 2257 — serious if you produce content; a documented position is usually enough if you do not.
4. DMCA — routine and manageable if you have a process.
5. Data protection — low drama if you keep the site clean of tracking from the start.

Maintained by [PORNAGG](/). We host no explicit media, produce none, process no payments, and keep a documented position on each of the above — see the [legal page](/legal). That is a deliberate design choice, not an accident.