Online porn: justice offers mediation to find ways to block access to minors

Eventually mediation was offered. This Tuesday, September 6, the Paris court examined the request of Arcom, former Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA), which required the blocking of several pornographic sites by the access providers.

Last December, the audiovisual cop asked five pornographic sites, including Pornhub, but also Tukif, Xhamster, Xvideos and Xnxx, to prevent minors from accessing their platforms worth the block. The respective companies were then notified.

Blocking access to porn sites for minors, headache?

At present, the limitation of access to these sites is regulated only by a window asking if the person is of age or not, before being able to access the contents. A rather light barrier, since in short, just click “yes” to access free porn contentregardless of how old you really are.

Is it actually possible to restrict access to minors for the targeted sites? With parental control? Or identification by credit card? And what about GDPR compliance in these circumstances? Last June, a Senate fact-finding mission examined this thorny issue in order to enforce Article 23 of the law of July 30, 2020, which allows Arcom to take action if it discovers that a site “allows minors to access pornographic content”.

The sites claim to have technical difficulties in actually filtering out internet users based on their age.

Arcom had already suffered a refusal to block the five sites last May due to a procedural error. “The regulator’s position is not to conduct seminars to help porn sites do their business.”the institute’s lawyers told AFP today.

On the side of the offending sites, we dispute the role of Arcom in this affair. MG Freesites, publisher of Pornhub, presented a Priority Question of Constitutionality (QPC) on this topic. The court will announce on 4 October whether or not it will transmit it to the Court of Cassation.

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