Pornographic sites return online in France, after a protest against a decision that forces them to check the age of the users
The big adult sites returned online in France on Friday, June 20, after a court suspended a decision that obliges the pornographic platforms based in the European Union to check the age of the users.
The French government has asked for sites with adult movies to verify photo age: Profimedia
Aylo, the owner of the Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube platforms, based in Cyprus, made his sites unavailable in France in early June as a form of protest against the French decree. Failure to comply with the provisions could lead to sanctions, including fines or the blocking of sites, The Guardian reports.
France has gradually introduced this year the requirement for all adult sites to ask users to confirm age by details such as credit card or an identity card. The purpose is to prevent the access of minors to pornographic content.
But the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the government decree on Monday while investigating if it is compatible with EU law. The French government expressed its intention to appeal to the State Council, the highest administrative court.
Aylo said that the decree suspension represents a “opportunity to reconsider more efficient approaches“To check the age. The company claimed that the current mechanism is inefficient and exposes the personal data of users to security risks, such as attacks, hacking or leakage.
“The obligation to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users ”, transmitted the company to a message displayed on the main pages of the sites earlier this month.
About 40% of children in France access monthly porn sites
In order to protect the intimacy, the government decree also provided for operators to provide an “double-blind” option through a third party, which will prevent the platforms from seeing users identification information.
About 40% of children in France are accessing monthly pornographic sites, according to a 2024 study conducted by ARCOM, the French audiovisual authority.
Aylo, which reports seven million visitors daily in France on its various platforms, has instead asked governments to force operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to check the age of users at the level of individual devices.
The platform also argues that the French law “Redirect users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations“And he fails to limit the videos in terms of aspects such as the age and consent of the actors.
Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, also apply access restrictions to adult sites according to age.
