Porn sites must check age of French users, says top court
More than half of all boys in France access porn sites on average every month from age 12, French audiovisual watchdog Arcom said in June.
France is trying to prevent minors from accessing pornography, but has faced pushback from adult websites.
The government in March ordered porn sites based in the European Union, but not in France, to check the ages of their visitors based on a French law from 2024, to prevent underage users from accessing them.
Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube, all owned by the same parent company, made themselves unavailable in France in early June in protest.
Hammy Limited, an adult film firm based on Cyprus and the operator of the Xhamster platform, took legal steps against the French decree.
The Paris administrative tribunal last month then suspended it, pending an investigation into whether it was compatible with EU legislation.
After the government appealed, the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, on Tuesday said it had annulled that suspension.
"YouPorn and Pornhub hit a wall. Judicial manoeuvrings in order to not protect children don't work," said France's junior minister for digital affairs Clara Chappaz on X.
In a bid to protect privacy, Arcom, the French watchdog, has recommended operators offer a third-party "double-blind" option that would prevent the platforms from seeing users' identifying information.
Aylo, which reports seven million visitors in France daily across its various platforms, has called instead for governments to require makers of operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to verify users' ages at the level of individual devices.
The EU Commission said on Monday that five EU countries, including France, would test an app aimed at preventing children from accessing harmful content online.
The commission unveiled the prototype of an age-verification app that Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain will customise to launch national versions within several months.
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Faced with vicious ethnopolitical propaganda and economic decline, the Druze found other means to act. In 1953, Druze officers Colonel Amin Abu Asaf and Captain Mohammed al-Atrash were plotting a coup. The army, thus, became a stage for the making and unmaking of power, with Alevi, Kurds, Christians, and Druze all competing to protect their interests against the majority. Also read: What's behind Israel's strikes in Syria & who are the 'Druze' that Netanyahu has vowed to protect A grim future? For the Druze, support from Israel—where they constitute a recognised official minority—is now critical. As historian Laila Parsons notes, early Jewish Agency officials operating in Palestine saw the benefits of developing ties to local minorities, and Itzhak Ben Tzvi—later to become Israel's second president—cultivated ties with the Druze. For the most part, the Druze stayed neutral in the Arab revolt of 1936-1939. The defeat of a small Druze detachment fighting the Israeli defence forces near the settlement of Ramat-Yohanan, wrote Parsons, stilled Druze desire to interject themselves in the conflict. In the war of 1947-1948, the Druze emerged better off than their Palestinian Christian and Muslim neighbours. They now had the choice of living as minorities in a Jewish state or as minorities in an Arab state. For most Druze, the choice was simple. For the Druze left in Syria and Lebanon, though, the future likely looks very different. Israeli air power was committed to protect Sweida from Bedouin tribes attacking the Druze. Still, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is an ally of the United States and is seen as key to the suppression of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Israeli support for Druze defiance cannot, therefore, be taken for granted in the future. 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