Telecom operators were notified this Friday, a month after the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal. The blocking occurs gradually.
“This site is inaccessible.” This message has gradually been imposed since this Friday afternoon on French Internet users who try to go to the pornographic video platforms Tukif, Xhamster, Mr Sexe and Iciporno. Telecom operators are in the process of blocking access to these sites after being notified today by the courts, as spotted by Politico.
This enforceable judgment was sent a little over a month after an unprecedented decision by the Paris Court of Appeal. After an endless legal drama which has not yet said its last words, the judge ordered this sanction against these four sites in the name of a law passed in 2020. The latter requires pornographic sites to verify the age of their visitors in order to block the path of minors. According to a recent Arcom study, 40% of 12-17 year olds go to X sites every month. These four sites will be re-authorized in France if they comply with the law.
The latter has long struggled with the nature of the systems that pornographic sites must put in place to effectively and robustly verify the age of their visitors, while protecting their privacy. Arcom ended up publishing on October 11, 2024 a “technical framework” to which all these sites must comply within three months or risk being outlawed. Sending an identity document, video selfie… these sites will have to offer their French visitors several solutions which will have to be operated by a third party company.
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In the meantime, pornographic sites are invited to immediately set up bank card verification, with a 0 euro transaction followed by validation by SMS or via the Internet user's banking application (strong authentication). This temporary solution is imperfect, but helps prevent accidental connections by children.
Tukif, Xhamster, Mr Sexe and Iciporno do not have a large audience in France. The legal standoff continues, however, with sector leaders Pornhub, Xvideos and Youporn, which are established in Cyprus and the Czech Republic. Their lawyers argued that the legislation of the European country in which they are housed should prevail over French law. In other words, that age verification did not apply to them. The question was referred by the Court of Appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
« Major sites are escaping a blockade that should be imposed. They are increasing their efforts to make the procedures last “, lamented Frédéric Benoist, lawyer for the associations La Voix de l'enfant and e-Enfance, seeing the effect of “ powerful porn industry lobby ».
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