Porn sites must check age of French users, says top court
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.
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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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