Spain
Online age verification for pornography is not a public issue at the moment in Spain. It has never been.
The Data Protection Law from 2018 stated that service providers were responsible for verifying the age of potential minors accessing their content and services. In Spain it is widely accepted that this is technically difficult. The government has made no effort to develop age verification in recent times.
People in Spain find it hard to imagine how age verification could be enforced in their country. In February 2020, the National Agency for Data Protection, put out a public document. It said “there is no evidence that editors or online publishers of adult oriented content are using any effective methods to verify the users are at least 18 years old”. This paper on better management for children’s internet data did not include age verification as a potential tool. It recommended minimizing data gathering and giving users appropriate information.
68%
of Spanish minors consume pornographic content on a regular basis.
There are other views in Spain. In September 2020, a Save the Children Spain report pointed out how easy is for minors to access pornography online. 12 years old is the average starting age and 68% of Spanish minors consume pornographic content on a regular basis. Our correspondent suggests that the only way to advance the age verification issue is by making the public aware of how potentially harmful pornography. This applies to both children and adolescents.
