When you start your adult website, you may be focused on choosing its design and content; however, like any business, it comes with specific legal responsibilities you must comply with as you operate.
Adult Site Broker has investigated the current legal landscape for the adult entertainment industry. Below, we have set out the most important legal considerations for starting an adult website.
Before we start, a disclaimer.
We are not attorneys. Before making any legal decisions, make sure to consult a licensed attorney in the areas in which you plan to do business.
Data and Privacy
Most countries have their own data and privacy laws that set out how websites should store and dispose of customers’ sensitive data, including names, addresses, banking details, email addresses, and other identifiable information, such as browsing history. GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are the most common. These laws set out the structures businesses use to process personal data, including individuals’ rights, the right to request removal, and penalties for non-compliance.
Licenses, IP, and Copyright
As you upload content onto your porn website, you need to make sure that your content does not violate any piracy laws. This means that when you upload porn videos and images, you need to buy the licensing agreements to have the content on your site.
When it comes to third parties violating these rules, the most common thing that happens is when third parties steal OnlyFans content and upload clips and images for free onto porn sites. To protect content creators, they can send a DMCA takedown notice to the website hosting their stolen content, and the website should remove it.
If you are found to have violated these or ignored DMCA takedown notices for your site, you may be sued for copyright infringement or fined. In today’s legal climate, allowing content to be uploaded to your site is a bad practice.
Age Verification and Model Release Forms
The role of these documents is to ensure that your performers not only consent to having their content uploaded and sold, but also to other clauses, including invasion of privacy, consent, sexually transmitted infections, sexual harassment, condom usage, and character/persona rights.
You must also have separate documents showing that performers are over 18. As a porn website, you now also have the added responsibility of ensuring that your users are also over the age of 18, as well as in many places.
Record Keeping
Under the law, credit card processors will require you to record all your licenses, model release forms, and age verification documents when setting up credit card processing on your adult website.
In the US, the publication of sexually explicit media on a website generally requires a Section 2257 disclosure statement, which identifies the location of the mandatory records.
Obscenity, Prostitution, Indecency, and Underage Materials Legislation
Although the distribution of porn is legal in the majority of countries around the world, you may find that certain countries have specific obscenity laws in place that can limit access to specific types of porn. This can include hardcore BDSM, squirting, and illegal acts such as violence, snuff movies, bestiality, and incest. Additionally, many places have indecency laws.
Certain countries have also made prostitution illegal, which can cause issues with escort sites.
Finally, it is on you as the porn website owner to ensure that all content uploaded to your website meets these legal requirements, but also doesn’t feature anyone underage.
Website Policies, Terms and Conditions
As a porn site owner, you need to make sure that you have the relevant documentation on your website, including users’ terms and conditions, privacy policies, advertisers’ agreements, DMCA notice and takedown policies, affiliate agreements, model agreements, anti-spam policies, copyright/trademark assignments, human trafficking, and abuse policies, model agreements, a website agreement policy, data protection, and GDPR policies.
Each of these documents is intended to address a unique set of legal concerns. Properly implementing and using these important agreements and policies is essential for mitigating legal risks.
FOSTA/SESTA
In 2018, the US passed the FOSTA bill. The bill aims to prohibit the promotion and facilitation of prostitution and human trafficking, and, secondly, remove the legal protections previously afforded to websites, making them now liable in connection with acts of prostitution or human trafficking on their website. Understanding this law as an adult website can help you set limits when uploading content to your site and shape your policies.
Marketing and Promotion (Anti-Spam Laws)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has imposed specific rules on adult websites to protect consumers in the US. These include not spamming consumers with your adverts and content, and not using fraudulent marketing or promotional material. These can result in an FTC investigation and fines and penalties for your website.
Conclusion
As you can see, starting an adult website, especially a porn site, isn’t just about making sure you have killer content and a great website. It also requires that you take your legal responsibilities seriously.
By understanding the legal considerations you will need to undertake upon starting a porn site, you can make sure that you are complying with your legal obligations from the start. Preventing you from running into any legal troubles, such as fines or even legal proceedings, as you start your journey in the adult entertainment industry,
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