It is a decision which should serve as an example. Last week, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the blocking of four pornographic sitesin response to legal action by two child protection associations. Accused of not doing enough to prevent access to minors, the platforms Mrsexe, Tukif and xHamster were among the first to face an outright ban on French territory. A sanction which was intended to be exemplary, and above all dissuasive, but which did not have the expected effect.
A technical error, and it's a tragedy
Following the decision to block the pornographic sites in question, Internet service providers were instructed to block several domain names linking to the incriminated platforms. On paper, there is therefore no question of actually banning the sites in question, but only of blocking their access on French territory. By typing “xHamster” in your search engine, the redirection link should direct you to an error message, indicating that the company had been sanctioned by the courts. In practice, the system turned into a fiasco because of a simple human error, which demonstrates the incomprehension of legislators on the question of pornography.
In the specific case of the xHamster site, in fact, the court decisions handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal only target the URL fr.xhamster.comi.e. the French subdomain of the site. The xhamster.com address, for its part, always remains accessible, and is only bothered by a pop-up window asking you to certify your majority. Information reported by our colleagues from The Informed, and which we were able to confirm.
The impossible blocking of X sites
Following the court ruling, Internet service providers were required to strictly implement the court order. The latter only mentioning the French branch of xHamster, the main site remained accessible without any legal restrictions. Enough to completely annihilate the protective measures initiated by the court, and offer an avenue to minors who would like to access content prohibited to those under 18. For months, private actors and legislators have been tearing their hair out to try to put in place a reliable solution for verifying the age of Internet users, which is effective, but not liberticidal. This specific case, which looks like a big failure, once again demonstrates all the technical difficulty of the exercise.
According to The Informed, the xHamster affair could well set a precedent in the future, leading to a complete review of blocking procedures. Blocking access to pornographic sites for minors is a long and tedious procedureespecially when the methods applied are already lagging behind.
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