Like a sensation of déjà vu: this February 5th, the Delegate Minister of Digital Jean-Noël Barrot announces to the Parisian his desire to “enforce the law once and for all”. A promise already made by his predecessors in the past. The law in question is none other than the one that obliges pornographic sites not to open their doors to underage Internet users. A text that is not respected anywhere on the Web: a simple click on a button “I certify that I am of legal age” allows access to a cloud of pornographic content most of the time.
Not one, but two trusted third parties
The government project, which should be framed in the recommendations of the Cnil and Arcom in the coming days, is to require pornographic sites to verify the age of Internet users. With, as the office of Jean-Noël Barrot explains, a privileged way: the use of a trusted third party.
Specifically, a trusted third party could consist of an application -created by a private company- that the Internet user should install in order to download a document proving that they are of legal age (identity document, bank contract, etc.). Without disclosing the identity of the user, this trusted third party must then confirm to the pornographic site that the latter is of legal age, in order to authorize the connection.
On paper, this model seems technically feasible… provided we rely on the goodwill of the platforms to establish partnerships with these trusted third parties and create a verification protocol exclusively dedicated to French Internet users.
But as the Cnil already pointed out in 2022, the request of these trusted third parties is not without risk: these companies would then have in their possession a database containing identity documents and lists of consulted pornographic sites. Highly sensitive information that prompts the CNIL to suggest the intervention of a second trusted third party, responsible for one of the two stages (age verification or communication with the pornographic site), to dissociate the two pieces of information.
To implement such a system, the Cnil recently published a use case, in which the Internet user who wishes to connect to a pornographic site would request a certificate of legal age from an organization that already has proof of his majority (his bank, or your energy provider), which you could then stream to an adult platform so you could connect to it. An option that would prevent the installation of an additional application.
imperfect system
If it may seem particularly laborious, this system is, however, the only one likely to be implemented: the Cnil has ruled out for several years any age verification based on the direct transmission of identity documents to platforms, on facial recognition, or on registration of a bank card. With the same reason every time: a disproportionate risk to personal data.
In fact, this verification by a trusted third party is easily circumvented. Firstly, for the simple fact that while the porn giants could be pressured to play along, millions of other sites abroad would continue to offer access to all Internet users, without age verification. .
Another difficulty is linked to the system itself: without a facial recognition tool, it is impossible for the trusted third party to ensure that the Internet user who uses the service is indeed the one who appears on the identity documents – for example, if a young teenager who came to borrow the identity document of another family member.
The Twitter case
Finally, many tools, now largely mastered, allow young Internet users to avoid this verification, recalls the Cnil. Starting with VPNs, also recommended to protect your privacy, which can simulate a connection from a foreign country, where there is no such obligation to verify age.
To enforce the law, the government should finally attack other platforms, at first sight far removed from the pornographic universe. Starting with Twitter, which allows adult videos. He tasks Jean-Noël Barrot with convincing Elon Musk to put in place an age verification system for his millions of French users.
Source: BFM TV
