Adult Sites in Ireland - Legalities?

Seth Brundle

What is the story about owning and hosting an adult site in this country? I was thinking of developing something for adults - not a porno site though - more along the lines of forum/blog/gallery/adverts but with restricted access?

Ph3n0m

Again people who respond - keep it clean.

This thread (or something like it) keeps reappearing every couple of months or so.

It would be nice to get someone to make a definite statement concerning this (no more grey area crap)

Seth Brundle

Thanks Ph3n0m - I don't think previous threads actually defined the current structures.
I'll search again but if anyone knows for sure let me know.
TIA

faceman

Im not sure what has been posted previously but my understanding would be as follows. As ur website is built and hosted in ireland, that it wud be subject to irish law. from the sound of it ur not goin to be hosting hardcore pornography so ud be surprised with what u can put up there. can u elaborate on what u mean by "developing something for adults"?

wheres me jumpa

well there are hosts who target the adult industry. im sure the prices are inflated more than regular hosting but its always an option if youre worried about the legality of your project.

Töpher

I'm using a host thats in the US I think, but I was having trouble finding (reasonably affordable) hosting that allowed adult content in Europe. No problems to mention so far, either with the hosting or the law (though I wonder if that applies when the hosting is outside of ireland?).

mneylon

kbannon wrote:

What is the story about owning and hosting an adult site in this country? I was thinking of developing something for adults - not a porno site though - more along the lines of forum/blog/gallery/adverts but with restricted access?

It depends on the type of content you want to publish and is quite a "grey" area.
There has been a related discussion here

While I gathered up some of the info and "arguments" here and here

You'll probably find that none of the Irish hosting companies will want to "touch" hardcore, but you shouldn't have too many issues with anything that isn't explicit or readily available to minors.

mneylon

Ph3n0m wrote:

It would be nice to get someone to make a definite statement concerning this (no more grey area crap)

see this comment:
http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2005/09/25/hot-sexual-romps-on-the-irish-internet/#comment-3379

Seth Brundle

I was thinking of a type of portal so to speak which would be for Irish adults to discuss their sexuality (sounds desperate!).
A bit like the Sex & Sexuality forum on here but would also incorporate the likes of escorts.com irish-swingers.com and whatever other ones are out there.
I had been thinking of making it restricted access - a simple registration/login would get you in whereby there would be a forum, a gallery, a classifieds section, etc. Restricted access may prove too much as then google wouldn't really notice it, in which case it may become semi-closed.

I think it has the potential to become a good site which is frequently used and I don't think there would be anything illegal about it. However, I just want to be sure.

mneylon

The general idea sounds fine and probably wouldn't be problematic.

What you would need to be very careful about is things like galleries etc., as potentially these could be abused.

The Irish legislation with regard to online publishing would also place you in the unenviable position of being responsible for ALL content published on the site, whether you put it there or not. Your hosting provider would be liable as well should they be informed of any content deemed to be slanderous etc.,

Fun?

AARRRGH

In a former life I used to develop adult sites for some people who work in the adult industry. This was hardcore stuff (but legal, obviously) .

I hosted the websites in America. If you're really paranoid, you could host them in Malaysia (I recommend Nocser Technology.) They let you do pretty much anything internet related there.

Why take the risk of hosting them in Ireland? Just to have an Irish IP? I know this may increase the chance of your website appearing as an Irish website in Google, but if you use a .ie domain it should appear in the Ireland only results anyway.

All the escort ireland.com (etc) stuff is not hosted in Ireland. I am sure they've thought it through!

By the way (just so you know) advertising for escorts online is LEGAL in Ireland. It's only illegal if you do it on the street. So it's possible even hosting an escort website in Ireland is totally fine.

However, why take the risk?

Also, US hosts have a tendency to be cheaper.

cianuro

dublindude wrote:

In a former life I used to develop adult sites for some people who work in the adult industry. This was hardcore stuff (but legal, obviously) .

I hosted the websites in America. If you're really paranoid, you could host them in Malaysia (I recommend Nocser Technology.) They let you do pretty much anything internet related there.

Why take the risk of hosting them in Ireland? Just to have an Irish IP? I know this may increase the chance of your website appearing as an Irish website in Google, but if you use a .ie domain it should appear in the Ireland only results anyway.

All the escort ireland.com (etc) stuff is not hosted in Ireland. I am sure they've thought it through!

By the way (just so you know) advertising for escorts online is LEGAL in Ireland. It's only illegal if you do it on the street. So it's possible even hosting an escort website in Ireland is totally fine.

However, why take the risk?

Also, US hosts have a tendency to be cheaper.

Some very good points DublinDude. Hosting in the US can be much cheaper and hosting an adult site there makes more sense. Just point your .ie domains DNS servers your servers in the US and your good to go. Hosting in Ireland is opening a whole can of worms. Your better off dealing with a company experienced in that corner of the hosting industry.