The legal battle between pornographic sites and Arcom (an entity born from the merger of CSA and Hadopi), has now lasted for more than two years. Last twist: the Council of State gives reason at Arcom on the need for platforms to block access to minors.
The Council of State rejects the appeal of the pornographic sites
This request made by Arcom dates back to the beginning of 2022. At the time, the audiovisual policeman had asked the five main French pornographic sites (Pornhub, Xnxx, Tukif, Xvideos and Xhamster) to prevent minors to access pornographic content and to take all necessary steps to achieve this. The simple declaration of majority required at the entrance to these sites is no longer considered a relevant safeguard.
On September 8, the two parties met for mediation proposed by the judicial authorities in an attempt to resolve the dispute. This did not succeed. Following this, the Council of State was seized to decide. On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the Council of State therefore dismissed the appeals formulated by Pornhub, Xvideos and Xnxx against the Arcom. The consequences of the case are therefore now only in the hands of the judge. The audiovisual policeman threatened to ” unplug porn sites if they do not implement such a strategy “.
According to Elsa Rodrigues, Pornub’s lawyer, “ it is very difficult to find a satisfactory solution for controlling the age of Internet users “. Indeed, that is the whole problem. If the desire to protect minors from pornographic content is obviously understandable and commendable, the technical solution to implement such blocking is not easy to find. On this subject, Charlotte Caubel, the Secretary of State for Children, had proposed to oblige Internet users to register a credit card at the entrance to the site, without having to pay anything, with the simple objective of putting an additional layer of parental supervision.
She explained that ” even if it’s not a perfect filter, if we can already protect 30 or 40% of minors, that would be a good thing. When my child uses his credit card, I get an alert, I’ll see if it’s on YouPorn or on McDo “. The National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL) had estimated that this solution was invasive and imperfect ».
