Porn sites suspend services in France in protest at age verification law

Local France

2 days ago

Pornhub and Youporn suspended access to their content in France until further notice in protest against the law.
In January, France introduced rules that required all French porn websites and those based outside the European Union to introduce a mechanism to
confirm the age of users
.
This was extended with a decree published in March that extended the measures to companies in the European Union – including Cyprus-based PornHub and YouPorn, as well as Hungary-based Jacquie et Michel.
Governments have battled for years to find ways to stop young people viewing online pornography, while balancing the right to privacy of adult users.
Age verification can be done with a credit card or by sending an identity document, but websites are also required to offer at least one "double blind" option for users to prove their age without revealing their identity.
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But administrators at the pornographic websites pointed to privacy issues and the risk of personal data leaks in age verification, and argued that the solution must come from devices and operating systems.
In the end, two decided to suspend their services in France, effective from Wednesday June 4th.
Pornhub and Youporn's decision was welcomed – with no little irony – by France's Minister for Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz, who said she 'wished them well'.
'I say goodbye to them!' Chappaz said in an interview with France Inter, following the sites' decision. 'Because no one is above the law.
'If these websites prefer to withdraw from France rather than protect our children, they have no place here.'
And she dismissed their data protection argument. 'It's too easy to take adults hostage and say 'we don't want to comply with our obligations'.
'These are simple obligations, which consist of saying that we can no longer be satisfied with the fact that children can click on the 'I am over 18' button to access adult content.
'It is not about stigmatising adults, but about protecting our children. If they don't want to do it, let them leave.
'I cannot accept that these sites, which generate hundreds of millions of euros, tell us that they are not ready, that there is no solution,' she added, citing 'about 15' possible technical solutions.
She said that a number of other sites had 'complied' with the new rules.
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Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, had previously said it would comply with the law
but has warned that the rules would likely prove 'ineffective' and 'dangerous' for users' security and privacy.
It argues that under-age internet users could be sent to other less regulated and more extreme areas of the internet.
A 2023 report by French senators found that two thirds of children aged 15 or less had seen pornographic content and concluded that there was 'massive, ordinary and toxic' viewing of porn by children, as well as routinely violent content.