A highly commented text. The High Council for Equality (HCE) released a report on the pornography industry this Wednesday, in which it denounces a “system of sexual exploitation on an industrial scale.”
Titled “Pornocriminality: let’s end the impunity of the pornographic industry”, the text criticizes many recurring practices in the sector, such as the reproduction of physical, sexual or verbal violence against women.
To combat what it presents as abuses, the HCE ends its report with proposals to better regulate pornographic sites, most of them taken from a note published in June. What are these recommendations?
• Impose age control on pornographic sites
Among the HCE’s proposals: “give the power to Arcom (the digital and media police, ndl) to block pornographic sites that do not implement effective age control.” In fact, these platforms already have a legal obligation to ensure that all their French users are over 18 years of age.
But currently no porn site really checks whether its users are of legal age and is content with a sworn declaration. A system considered insufficient: half of 12-year-old children go to these sites every month, according to Arcom.
Arcom has already warned several sites and threatened to block them before the Paris court. But the procedure was not successful, because the affected platforms filed an appeal with the Council of State, claiming that there is no ideal age verification system on the Internet, which would make the law inapplicable.
“It is up to pornographic sites to implement a technical system that respects the law, not the authorities,” replies the HCE.
• Allow removal of violent content
Another possibility considered by the HCE: allowing the Pharos platform, which is used to report illegal content found on the Internet, to block or even delete videos that contain “serious intentional attacks on personal integrity.” All this under article 222-33-3 of the Penal Code, which punishes violence and its recording with the same penalties.
A reason disputed by some experts. “Actors and actresses are… actors, even if they perform “unsimulated sexual acts,” Mélanie Jaoul, professor of private law and president of the TDS Allies Association, reminds France Inter. If a work of fiction such as a war film is not affected by this article, it is difficult to know if it could apply to pornographic films.
• Allow the removal of non-consensual videos
The HCE also recommends allowing any person who appears in a sexual video to request its “elimination”, “with no other conditions than proving that it is them” in the video. This right of withdrawal must be “simple and effective”.
Would this measure allow the removal of videos on pornographic platforms, or on the Internet in general? Contacted by Tech&Co, the HCE did not immediately respond.
• Support European regulatory projects
Since most major porn sites are not based in France, their regulation is not limited to French law. For this reason, the HCE proposes in particular to include “all pornographic sites” in the list of large platforms of the DSA, the European regulation that imposes reinforced requirements on them.
The EHR also urges the French legislator to “support European regulation on child online crime.” A text supported by numerous associations, which would make it possible to better combat the spread of children’s criminal content; but also widely criticized because, in its current form, it could require platforms to break the encryption of discussions, which could threaten the secrecy of conversations and the privacy of Internet users.
Source: BFM TV
