In the adult entertainment industry, we don’t have a regulator to answer to. There’s no FCC for porn – the closest the industry gets is Visa and Mastercard. Yup, the very same companies that are on your debit and credit cards in your wallet right now.
If it sounds strange that two multi-billion dollar US corporations get to decide what spicy videos you post on SinParty, you’re not wrong. At SinParty, we aim to be as open and honest with you, our creators, so we’re going to give you the lowdown on how this works.
To help you understand how we moderate content, we’re going to go through:
- How Visa and Mastercard became the regulators of porn
- What their regulations and rules look like
- How their regulations affect the content you post on SinParty
Why do Visa and Mastercard have so much power in porn?
Pretty much every country has laws about pornography, yet with most adult content being online it’s pretty hard for countries to actively regulate it. They probably don’t really want to either – which government wants their courts deciding what is and isn’t porn?
However, these laws exist and payment processing companies Visa and Mastercard have to try and reduce their risk of being part of illegal activity. It’s the same reason you can’t use your credit card at a cannabis dispensary in the USA – the companies don’t want to expose themselves to the risk of breaking the law.
If Visa and Mastercard are going to process payments for an adult content website, they need to protect themselves from being sued or prosecuted. Everyone in the industry remembers when both companies stopped processing payments for Pornhub and have since been named in a lawsuit brought by women who had videos posted of them without consent, when under 18.
When no one else will regulate porn, we as a website and you as a content creator have to listen to what these two payment giants say. Of course, we want to stay on the right side of the rules so we can continue to exist and give you a place to do business and find success.
How do Visa and Mastercard regulate porn?
With a clear line of risk, being the most well-known brands associated with adult content, it’s easy to understand why these enterprises have a hand in the rules of the porn industry. How they exert that control is interesting to understand.
The rule books for both these companies are vast. They cover all kinds of things, like when a hotel can charge you for not turning up to how long it should take for a company to process a refund.
Within the rules Visa and Mastercard layout, it is made clear that illegal activity isn’t allowed, including “prohibited adult content”. Now, this is a pretty hard thing to define, as we’ve discussed, with rules different around the globe.
Neither company gets into the details, and instead delegates definitions and enforcement of protecting their brand to payment processors. These are companies that actually provide the software to banks and to companies like SinParty that allow us to take card payments.
It’s actually these payment processors that decide what a porn site can and cannot host. They have to interpret what Visa and Mastercard want and what governments expect – you can see why they err on the side of caution.
What do payment processors ban on porn sites like SinParty?
There are long lists of language that can’t be used on a porn site. Some of them are obvious and we’d never want them on our site, no matter what – things like people under 18 or animals, as you’d expect.
The gray area is around content that could be seen as “obscene”. This word comes up in most laws about porn and adult content around the world. It obviously means different things to different people, but common kinks that can fall on the wrong side of this list include:
- Blood
- Pee
- Bondage
- Impact play
Words that suggest non-consent also make payment processors nervous and so also have to be treated with care on SinParty.
How can you stay compliant on SinParty?
We want to strike a balance on SinParty – to give you a space to express your desires and share your kinky, spicy content with your fans, and to actually be able to process payments that allow you and us to be successful.
We recently introduced a tool that moderates the way you add titles, descriptions, and tags to your content. You might find that some words you want to use come up with a warning. If this happens, consider how you can label your videos that keep them compliant.
Unsure if you can post the content you make on SinParty? We’re open to discussing how we interpret compliance and the rules we need to follow from payment processors. You can contact us through @SinPartyLife on Twitter or send an email to creators@sinparty.com and we’ll chat with you.
Of course, we don’t want anything clearly illegal on the site. Always remember to have 2257 consent forms and ID copies for every single person who appears in your videos. Although you don’t need to submit them every time, we can ask for this proof at any time, if needed.
What you need to know about payments and porn
SinParty needs to stay compliant with payment processing rules so we can continue to build a site for you to do business. Payments is one of the main issues facing the industry at the moment – as a creator, you’ll be aware that there are companies like PayPal and Venmo that don’t welcome money made through sex work, even if it’s completely legal where you are.
We want to work with you to get things right. We’re open to talking and addressing your concerns – reach out to us and you’ll be able to talk to a human about anything payments and content related.
Whenever there are industry updates and changes, we’ll do our best to keep you informed, too. You can sign up to our mailing list to be sure to get the latest industry-focused creator updates direct to your inbox.
Leave A Reply