“Good riddance,” some would say. “Above all not”, others will think. Faced with the risk of blocking pornographic sites in France if they do not control the age of Internet users, the global giant of the Mindgeek sector does not rule out making its video platforms inaccessible in the country.
The Canadian fund Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) acquired in March the group of “adult entertainment”, which notably owns YouPorn and Pornhub, and must therefore face the threat of French justice to block its sites on July 7 . Seized by associations, Arcom has put 15 sites on notice to establish a real age control, and has taken legal action in France to obtain the blocking of seven of them, including Pornhub. The Paris court is due to rule on this case on July 7. The Penal Code prohibits exposing minors to pornographic photos and videos and the law on domestic violence of July 30, 2020 specifies that the companies concerned cannot exonerate themselves from their responsibilities by simply asking an Internet user if he is major. However, nearly a third of minors using the Internet continue to consult at least one porn site each month, according to a recent study by Médiamétrie.
“In all the jurisdictions where we operate, we respect the law,” lawyer Solomon Friedman, partner and spokesperson for the fund, told AFP, whose profile is surprising: he was ordained a rabbi in Israel in 2005. His group faces, in the United States in particular, an outcry. Louisiana is the first US state to require proof of age to access porn sites from its territory. In question, the “public health crisis” caused by the consumption of pornography by minors. Mindgeek and Ethical Partners submitted to Louisiana’s “digital wallet” requirements. In the process, 13 other states, including California (Democrat), Utah and Texas (Republican), introduced similar bills. This is also the direction taken by France and Great Britain. But in Utah, the law requires adult sites to verify the identity of Internet users themselves and the company of Solomon Friedman refused to comply, cutting off access altogether. “Suddenly, the use of VPNs (software to change the origin of one’s connection, editor’s note) exploded”, reports Mr. Friedman, who does not wish for the moment to “speculate” on what his decision will be in France.
Checking the identity of Internet users on smartphones?
To protect minors, the only “effective” solution, he says, is identity verification directly on smartphones, “which could be implemented tomorrow” if the industry, phone manufacturers and regulators agree. .
He also says he is ready to meet the French Minister Delegate for Digital, Jean-Noël Barrot, who has proposed a bill to strengthen the blocking powers of the digital regulator and is impatiently awaiting the decision of July 7 to make, possibly, case law. “The figures are terrifying in their scale, their progression and the youth of the children. This confirms the need to act to prevent the situation from getting worse”, proclaimed the minister at the end of May, after the publication of the study on the consumption of minors.
Ottawa-based ECP in March bought 100% of Mindgeek, a porn empire founded in 2004 that sought to sell itself after the publication in late 2020 of a New York Times investigation highlighting the presence on its platforms of videos of rape, pedophilia and abusive pornography. The Visa and Mastercard payment systems, which have cut their service with the Mindgeek advertising agency, fearing to be associated by American justice with the actions of the group. Solomon Friedman bought the company with, rumor has it, his just-adult daughter, another lawyer, a former police officer, a crisis communications expert and an Italian investor who made his fortune in the legal sale of cannabis. The other investors remain discreet.
Friedman is the main associate to speak to the press. He claims that eight million videos have been removed from the platform and that all content is subject to moderation by algorithms and employees in Cyprus; at the slightest deletion request, the videos would no longer be visible, the time to check. Pornhub claims 130 million daily users.
“We are long-term investors, we are moving towards a normalization of this industry as happened with cannabis, which has become a boring business,” he told AFP. You will gradually see the type and quality of advertisers evolve, and it will become mainstream”.
Related News :