Faced with free access to pornographic content online, the government hardens its tone: in its bill “which aims to secure and regulate the digital space”, now in the hands of the Senate, the executive wants Arcom (ex-CSA) can order the blocking of pornographic sites that do not verify the age of Internet users. Some of them, including Pornhub, have already been prosecuted for many months and could be blocked by the courts in early July.
no technical solution
Since 2020, the law requires all sites that distribute pornographic content to control the age of Internet users, using a tool that respects privacy. In other words: without asking Internet users for an identity document, for example thanks to possible “majority certificates” generated by your telephone operator or your bank. But to date, the law is not respected anywhere, for lack of an existing technical solution.
This June 16, the owner of the investment fund Mindgeek, which owns the Pornhub and Youporn sites in particular, raised the possibility of leaving France, given the impossibility of complying with the law. On Twitter, the Minister Delegate for Digital, Jean-Noël Barrot, for his part, responded that “there are” solutions that make it possible to verify the age of Internet users, without specifying which ones.
The government launched tests of age verification tools in March 2023, which it has not communicated since. In February 2023, the Cnil had estimated for its part that it might be acceptable to use imperfect solutions, such as the use of a bank card, or an algorithmic analysis of facial features to estimate the age of the Internet user. A solution against which the Cnil, however, had been reserved in 2022, due to the risks of video recordings and blackmail on the webcam.
VPN fever?
For the moment, in the absence of a harmonized technical solution, the big platforms of the pornographic industry might prefer to leave the French market. Legal proceedings launched by Arcom in 2022 could lead to a de facto ban on Pornhub and Youporn, which are among the main sites targeted, in France.
Specifically, justice would require Internet service providers to block access to these giants of online pornography. A hypothesis that, however, may not be enough to prevent minors from accessing content reserved for adults: despite the blocking of a handful of platforms, thousands of others would still be available.
In addition, and as the fund that owns Mindgeek assures, Internet users could massively resort to VPNs, which allow them to simulate a connection from a foreign country. Or simply towards a DNS modification to replace this referrer tool of your ISP’s websites with that of a third party.
But porn sites aren’t the only ones with adult content. This is also the case with Twitter, the only major social network that allows pornographic photos and videos. According to the new law promoted by the government, Elon Musk’s platform should also implement age verification, where to leave the country.
Source: BFM TV
