Age verification mandatory in 5 states, more to come

xHamster took early action to introduce age verification measures for all users in Louisiana, Utah, Mississippi, Virginia, and Arkansas when AV checks became mandatory for online adult entertainment there.

This step has resulted in a rapid decline in our audience, as users clearly do not appreciate any extra hassle with age verification, opting out for alternative platforms that have chosen to ignore such legal requirements.
The process of verifying users’ ages has become burdensome for us as it incurs additional costs for xHamster because only 6% of users attempt the age verification, and among them, only 3% are successful.

There is no doubt more states will be joining this questionable initiative, and it has been confirmed that Texas is introducing the AV checks as of September 1.

This current approach is heavily flawed, and we are convinced that a sustainable solution must involve implementing age verification at the device level.
Published by xHamster
8 months ago
Comments
91
Please or to post comments
spritzgebaeckxxx
"This step has resulted in a rapid decline in our audience, as users clearly do not appreciate any extra hassle"

This is just bullsh*t!!! People are leaving because
* YOU have closed the story section
* YOU have removed galleries for normal user (your biggest fault!!!)
* YOU do not fix reported bug (messages go to wrong chat, online status is not shown correctly and more)
* YOU are ignoring bug reports and do not fix bugs
* YOU have removed the picture upload for the profile text
* YOU have restricted upload of profile pictures (wearing leggings is nude? sitting on a chair shows weapons?), the algorithm behind it completely crap and faulty
* YOU let the creators spam our chats. And as I complained about it you deactivated my old account

It is not the age verification that results in a rapid decline in your audience. It is YOUR policy of shutting down the community functions and trying to monetize more by focussing on your "creators". This way YOU will lose more and more normal users. The content of most creators suck, the once good community porn site has become become a boring place for wannabe creators.

By your wrong actions the decline will go on and on and on and least you end with a boring site with only creators and no users. Just like the faphouse shit.
You are driving down your own site. Five years ago it was a great place, now it is only boring and lost its appeal.

Go on like this and soon we can say: R.I.P. Xhamster
Reply
SexWithMilfStella
Really crappy that this is how the world is headed but this article didn't really explain how you plan to handle this issue as more states require it?
Reply
sevengable
Your less that fair business practices towards content creators and your unreasonable documentation requirements with your site specific forms and both sides of ID these among others were decisions you made within your company.  
No other site has required these unfair & unreasonable specifics and all these things together has made your site undesirable for creators for sometime anyway. 
When you changed your documentation requirements and accidentally deleted all records from honest creators like me who had already filed what was legally required as every other site accepts it - that made me just about finished with XHamster . 
Reply
Maxseekingwoman
Republicunts and Democraps are teaming up to take away the right to view porn.
Reply
nbdaddyo
FWIW, I came to Xhamster after trying some of the competing platforms that were "easier" and I deleted my accounts there soon after creating them after I saw the dumpster fire that was their trust and safety administration. I chose this platform because it is compliant, and I see streaming potentially becoming a hot political issue as moral panic continues gripping the election cycle. It doesn't make sense to build something new on a platform that is behind, you know? You made the right decision. 
Reply
gregmd
to merlinhamster : You have no idea about history obviously. This is not about being conservative. It’s about individualism vs collectivism. I don’t care about red or blue. I care about the constitution.
Reply Show original comment Hide
gregmd
to merlinhamster : I don’t expect from libtards something else
Reply Show original comment Hide
merlinhamster
to jimmy_chilla : who wants his real name and face up here? other sites log in and harvest all profiles... and put them togehter for dark purposes. backupped till the end of ....ages.
Reply Show original comment Hide
merlinhamster
to gregmd : no : american ultra conservative small minded Republicans are throwing us back in the 18th century. 
Reply Show original comment Hide
merlinhamster
quiet useless if one is an account member for more than 18 or 21 years and from abroad.....
Reply
RizzRoyalXXX
Verification is fine. This is a adult content site. What i'm noticing is a massive amount of bots. One night i saw 8 accounts with the same profile pictures. 2 to 5 minutes is better than 8 for male solo content, but it is what it is. A ton of unactive accounts. If i want to send pics or vids through my chat does the other chatter have to be verified to? The site just seems quiet. First 2 weeks was so so, then the reuqest slowed to a stop. I'm getting subscribers though. 
Reply
gynman
For some reason they decided to delete and ban fetish videos on the xhamster, although there is no ban in the rules. Most likely, some % of users will prefer other sites.
Reply
Citore
to spritzgebaeckxxx : The removal of the 'Download' button was a big issue at the time.  It angered a lot of account holders, and I wouldn't be surprised if many left.  Also annoying are the false tags on uploaded videos; reporting them seems to have no effect.  I have uploaded videos and tagged them correctly, only to find that incorrect tags have later been added, presumably by xHamster.  Finally, it irritates me that while male homosexuality is categorised correctly as 'Gay', female homosexuality is categorised incorrectly as 'Straight'.  All homosexuality, male and female, is gay.
Reply Show original comment Hide
coffeedrinker58
Not quite on topic, although I do appreciate age verification. My Xhamster is all in Spainish. How do I switch it to English? Thanks. 
Reply
Mehrad karyjon 
Reply
Happylora365
I want to become dark porn star
Reply
Happylora365
Hi I am sultan age 32 years from Pakistan 
Reply
Sparky222x
The government's r the controller's for the world empire's 🌎  they r gonna control you cause you will receive the mark of the beast Satan the Devil 😈 🤣 😉 👏 💪 😎 😈 🤣 
Reply
Loverboy9777
It's bad enough i have to be a 32yo autistic virgin and now the stupid government doesn't even want me to see naked women.
Reply
I wont records move film mask I am alone And i am poor
Reply
bpaak_waan
"This step has resulted in a rapid decline in our audience"
What a crock of shit !
With an estimated membership of 10 million worldwide, you are claiming that restrictive laws in 5 US states has caused a massive reduction. Bollocks !!  Could it be that what you have turned xhamster into is the actual factor that has resulted in a loss of viewers, ie a loss of revenue ?

"The process of verifying users’ ages has become burdensome for us as it incurs additional costs"
What a crock of shit !
With an estimated worth of $3,332,500,000, you are trying to tell us that having to recode for age verification purposes is a huge financial drain  ??  You never complained about the cost when you introduced ridiculous verifications for your members in order to upload videos and pictures.
Reply
Fab as the best verification process , you can once been on there fourteen days, enter a face to face cam chat with others ,to enable cam verification, also if you meet face to face both parties can verify each other and it shows on your profile that you have been verified.. You dont need to display who its optional ,but will say you have been verified, also once you have a certain amount of veri , either by face cam chat or meeting in person , you get a badge type thing to say verified by 20 people or more , plus they have people who set up club meets for people to go to in a safe environment to all see each other ,and get multiple veris ... I been on and off hamster for years met no one cant trust them , obviously not all fake but either live to far or just no way of knowing there real ,ive been on fab , and in 3 days of being on there i met 2 people that were already verified..and now in contact with them , they verified me so that other see ive met face to face or by cam face to face and im genuine because thet can read my verifications from the people ive met .....here on XH ..theres profiles that are obviously fake eg: Someone who says there twenty three but there profile 10 y r s on line take that from age , obviously they didnt sign up at ..13 ..theres many like this here ...the reporting process is rubbish ..i know there one profile thats been on here years and 36,000 friends , but i know none of them talk and she/he is a scammer , there not where they say they are , the photo is from a total different country , there ip dont match there location and there isp isnt from the country there displayed.. I know this 100% So why as this never been picked up ?...yes FAB ..way better for verifications 
Reply
DrunkenDiablo
 I know after everything is said and done I will still get ads on facebook advertising for ED and it will be a Big Thick Cock sliding deep into a Big Wet Pumped Pussy. 
Reply
to Bear4rawdick : Vote Libertarian!
Reply Show original comment Hide
Maxseekingwoman
to illmorr : Democraps supported Republicunt age verification bills in these states. Bipartisan bullshit to take away everyones right to view porn.
Reply Show original comment Hide
Just block any connections from those states.Obviously this wouldn't stop the decline in audience but it would save you the hassle of verification. If every adult website did that these laws would be overturned practically overnight. To paraphrase Dr. Cox from Scrubs "If they removed porn from the internet there would only be one website left and it would be called 'Bring back the porn'"
Reply
GalaxyDoppler
Well viewing feet porn is gonna be a hassle 😣
Reply
gregmd
We’re heading towards dark ages I guess. The communists are taking over. 
Reply
The state governments in question don't want a "sustainable solution" - that's the whole point.  They want to make it as burdensome and intrusive as possible so that sites like this will cease to exist.
Reply
jimmy_chilla
I would consider opening up my adult site with the requirement of simply uploading a scan of driver's license which would be viewed by people with extensive background checks and then deleted. Problem is my site gets hardly any visitors so it would be just to prove a point. PM me if interested. I make no money on my adult site, but I do promote beautiful women on it. 
Reply