The Government has been launching the “pajorte” for months. Spanish porn platforms are already noticing their impact

“Before watching this video for adults, please show me your porn card.” That was in July 2024 the idea of ​​the government to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content on the Internet. That hypothetical Pajorto It seems to have stayed in anyone’s land, however, because … Does anyone know where it is?

Pajorto. The popularly known as porn card or “pajorte” had as an official name “Beta Digital”. That it was nothing more than a mobile application that thanks to the use of public or private keys would allow the user’s age to verify and give access to online pornographic content.

Doubts everywhere. Soon many doubts appeared –even legal– On the viability of a very complex project at the technical level and With a little reach In our country. In addition, governments have centuries trying to put doors to porn And they never went too well.

Pajorte, theoretically in tests. As they point out In the countryPajorte still does not exist even though it should have been ready for the “end of summer” of 2024. That was at least the promise of the then Minister of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá. His successor, Óscar López, declared in the Senate On February 26 that the digital portfolio “is being reviewed at the National Cryptological Center to have all the security, because it has to give guarantees to all citizens.” Even so, according to the Vanguardia López, he said that the government “has found a solution to guarantee privacy and verify age” and that the Spanish tool is being “study in Europe and the same within a year all of Europe is applying it.”

European digital identity (EIDAS2). The European Union It has been for years working on the call ‘European Digital Identity Wallet‘, a kind of digital identity card that will unify DNI, passwords and all payments in the same application. That initiative He is not exempt from criticismbut theoretically it will end up being implemented in November 2027 although the barriers are still important. Spain tried to advance with this digital portfolio focusing on solving the problem of access to the porn of minors, but the Spanish initiative has ended up becoming a recurring meme.

Picture traffic drop. The Cumloouder Adult Content website, of the Asturiana Techpump company, asks its users in Barcelona and Madrid to choose an age verification system to access its contents. On the one hand, an app similar to Beta Digital Portfolio that makes the introduction of the DNI necessary. The second, an age estimate based on an image of the user’s face. Responsible for this platform explained in the country how their traffic has fallen 85% after implementing this system. Of the 15% who end up accessing “3.38% do the verification and 11.7% make the estimation with AI, it is almost four times more practically those who put their face.”

Porn (national) would have to close. For those responsible for Cumlouder, a 85% drop in your business would be catastrophic. “The traffic is business. If we get to do it for all Spain, we go down blind,” said Javier Fernández, head of Techpump technology in statements to El País.

Data privacy and protection. Pojorto will only affect Spanish porn platforms, which as we said are the ones that users use the least in our country. Despite this, this measure could harm them because the lack of legal clarity is worrying. The CNMC has processed several files for the application of the 2022 audiovisual lawwhich forces to take necessary measures for the protection of minors in this area.

Better leave the business. In fact, the regulations are causing a blunt effect on that industry. “There is no system in the market that complies with the new audiovisual law without violating data protection rights,” explained one of those affected by regulation. He ended up selling the domain and eliminating the content “to avoid possible sanctions that could take me to bankruptcy.” The CNMC already fined 308,529 euros to Techpump Because of their zero age control, and these types of sanctions can be a death sentence for smaller platforms.

Possible solution: no free content. The failure of the verification system has caused Techpump to choose to move on to a payment gateway, which will make it filter first with a credit card. From there they intend to create a verification system to offer it to other adult content platforms. The CNMC already indicated that the card payment is not enough to verify that a person is of legal age.

United Kingdom, a parallel example. The British country also has been promoting measures to protect minors from access to pornography. His Online Safety Act It raises alternatives for identification and access to these contents, among which are a photographic identification, an age estimate, credit card checks or with digital identity services. However, there is no unique or definitive system, but It is supposed According to the British regulator, ofcom, which “by July 2025, all platforms must have a very effective age guarantee solution to protect children under 18.”

Impossible to put doors to the field. All this leads to the colossal challenge of being able to control access to pornographic content by minors, something that seems almost impossible despite the efforts of Spain or the European Union. There is still room for options, of course, but the possible disadvantages – especially in privacy and limitation of freedoms – can be insurmountable obstacles to these projects.

In Xataka | The Japanese are ceasing to consume paper pornography. And that has had a direct effect on its streets