Is European Porn Legal? Porn Laws in Western Europe

European porn is a big industry, which is to be expected with its reputation for liberal attitudes. In fact, nine out the fifteen countries hosting the most porn sites are based in European countries.

But European porn in a large market, so here we’re going to be looking at the west end of Europe, with a whole other article for you to check out laws in the east. Are you expecting “it’s all legal, knock yourselves out”? Nope, be ready for more than that.

We’re going to look at European porn laws covering 18 countries that are geographically in Western Europe. Don’t see your European nation covered? Check out our guide to porn laws in eastern Europe instead.

Illegal porn all over Europe

Before we dive into the porn laws in Europe by country, there’s one common factor that covers all of them. As you’d expect, child pornography is completely illegal in all of these countries.

There are harsh penalties across Europe for child pornography. Prison sentences are years long for making, distributing, and viewing underage pornography, and rightly so.

Here at SinParty, we fully comply with anti-child porn laws and verify the age of every one of our performers. Although it won’t be mentioned in each country’s laws, be sure that content of anyone under the age of 18 is completely illegal in all these jurisdictions.

European porn laws by country – Western Europe

Austria

Starting us off nice and vanilla, porn in Austria is legal, except when in comes to bestiality – or sex with animals. As a 16-year-old you can buy and watch softcore porn, whilst hardcore porn is restricted to those 18 and above.

Belgium

Nothing to see here. Well, except porn. In Belgium porn is legal to watch, sell, and make. That’s pretty much it…

Denmark

In the year of love, 1969, was the first country in Europe to legalise pornography. It’s still legal now; feels like they peaked too soon.

Finland

Fifteen year olds can legally buy softcore porn, and that age jumps to 18 when wanting to buy hardcore porn in Finland. There are laws against porn that depicts violence or bestiality, too.

France

France is, or at least was famed for its porn industry. Hazy softcore porn was known to European porn-lovers as easy to access – Spanish companies even organized tours across the border. Legally speaking, you need to be 16 or older to access softcore porn and 18+ to get your hands on hardcore pornography.

France also has a dedicated tax on porn, with a rate of 33% on X-rated films and a 50% tax on online pornography.

Germany

As you’d expect in this bastion of sexual liberation, pornography in Germany is legal to make, own, and watch.

Greece

Whilst pornography in Greece has been legal, albeit with some grey areas, for quite a while, it was only in 2008 that being able to create porn in the country became fully legal. Greek SinParty creators, go for your life!

Iceland

They’re a little more conservative on the northerly island. It’s still illegal to publish or sell porn in Iceland and punishment is up to six months in prison. An outright ban on porn was proposed back in 2013, luckily for those seeking comfort on long, cold Icelandic nights, it was opposed and never passed.

Ireland

Surprisingly for a country with large religious influence, there are no specific laws regarding pornography in the Republic of Ireland. There are laws about “obscenity” but the word is ill-defined and the laws haven’t been used in years.

Italy

Italy’s penal code does have laws about porn. The publication of obscenity is illegal and was hotly enforced in the country in the 1980s. Attitudes evolved and the law has since come to be viewed as offering people protection from unwanted porn. If you want to watch people fucking on your computer whilst in Italy, no one’s going to stop you.

Malta

As a mainly Catholic and conservative island, it’s no surprise there have been tough penalties for porn. As recently as 2011, people were prosecuted for adult pornography-related offences.

In 2016, the laws were updated and anything that wasn’t “extreme”, i.e. showing a threat to life, became legal. Possessing extreme porn carries sentences of up to three years in prison.

Netherlands

Another European country known for its liberal attitudes towards sex and nudity, it’s surprising that porn wasn’t fully legalised until 1985. If you’re under 16, you still can’t access porn though.

Norway

It was only in 2006 that Norway legalised pornography. There are not acts that are specified as illegal when creating sexual content in the country, either.

Portugal

Not only is porn legal in Portugal, there are designated cinemas for porn to be sold – although that may be a little outdated in today’s porn market. The legal age to be able to go to these adult cinemas, or get your hands on porn at all, is 18-years-old.

Spain

Under the Fascist dictator Franco, porn was illegal. There’s a trend for totalitarian regimes to ban pornography, it seems. Those frisky Spaniards weren’t all put off and would go on holiday to Spain just to be able to get their kicks.

Nowadays, porn is legal but can’t be sold on public newsstands, which isn’t really a 21^st century issue. Spain is even home to some big players in the porn industry, with Private Media Group being headquartered in Barcelona.

Sweden

You won’t find it too surprising to know that Sweden has very liberal pornography laws. There’s no legal age at which you can access porn. Even bestiality isn’t banned, although it is regulated under animal welfare legislation.

Sweden has regulated Japanese cartoon porn like Hentai, however. Under their child porn laws, some hentai has been banned because of the suggestion that characters were under 18 from their looks.

Switzerland

If you show porn to anyone under 16, you can face up to three years in prison in Switzerland. There are also laws banning bestiality, snuff, and rape porn to. Up until 2014, scat at watersports porn – poo and pee porn for those of you who are wet behind the ears – was banned but it was legalised that year.

The United Kingdom

The UK introduced some rather interesting porn laws a few years back. There’s an interesting array of acts that are banned from being filmed for porn in the UK, although you can’t get into trouble for watching them.

Some of the recent rules include:

• No penetration with an object associated with violence
• Female ejaculation – no squirting
• Facesitting
• Fisting

For a full dissection of the laws on porn in the UK, we’ve got a full article with everything you need to know.

Accessing European porn

None of the countries on our list explicitly ban you from accessing pornography. It’s worth understanding what the laws are in different countries, especially if you travel – you don’t want to have issues as you move around.

There are, of course, other countries in the world that are a lot accessible when it comes to porn. Do you find it challenge you watch the porn you want and access your SinParty content when you’re on the move? Check out what fellow globetrotters do to access their sexual content on the go.

Why is porn regulated?

International attitudes towards pornography, sex, and nudity are evolving. There are lots of countries that ban porn for religious reasons, although as we’ve seen you can be a religious nation like Ireland or Malta and still let your citizens get their hands on the good stuff.

Other countries seem to have a more general moralistic attitude towards porn. There was a widespread ban on porn in Warsaw Pact countries before the fall of the iron curtain – this was mainly political, with an attempt to ban American and Western European porn content making it into the country and subverting politics.

Along with porn laws, there are other strange laws around the world when it comes to sex. Some states in the US ban blowjobs, although they’re no longer enforced. To get to grips with other strange sex laws, like dildo bans and enforced knicker wearing, check out our guide to weird sex laws around the world.  

Bringing it together

European porn is generally easy to access, in the western side of the continent at least. There are few surprises when you see the countries that do and don’t regulate adult content strictly.

It’s important to note once more, although we’ve not mentioned it for each country – child pornography is banned in each and every one of these countries. Making, viewing, and distributing sexual images of children is illegal all across western Europe and it’s strictly enforced.

Other than that, there are few restrictions on what you create for your SinParty if you’re based in or working out of western Europe.