Checking "I certify that I am eighteen years old" may not be enough soon to access a pornographic site. An amendment has just been adopted in the Senate to prevent minors from accessing this kind of content. This amendment, supported by the majority, and which must now be voted on in the National Assembly, would oblige sites to check the age of their users. If they do not, the CSA would have the possibility of seizing the justice which could prevent the complete access to these sites from France.
A balance to be struck between protection of privacy and protection of minors
On the free sites, it suffices for the moment to check a box to access all the content, it is easy and it does not commit to anything. "There are very simple addresses and we go straight to them" sums up Martine Brousse, president of the federation of associations The Voice of the Child. Conversely, on paid porn sites, you must enter a credit card number. The filter is therefore automatic since only adults are allowed to have one. This is one of the solutions envisaged by the amendment.
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It plans to oblige Internet users to either enter a credit card number, even on free sites, or to use FranceConnect, a sort of certified digital ID. But these two solutions pose problems of anonymity. For Martine Brousse, the balance is difficult to find between "respecting the privacy of adults" and at the same time succeeding in "protecting minors".
"It will force a certain number of professionals to truly provide answers"
Martine Brousse is certain, "this proposal will be adopted" and "will force politicians but also associations, operators, all digital players to find solutions, and that is important. It will force a number of professionals to genuinely provide answers and solutions. "
It remains to be seen whether this measure, once adopted, will be applied. A similar law passed in the UK in 2017 was withdrawn two years later, due to a lack of technical and legal solutions that sufficiently respect privacy. Last November, Emmanuel Macron gave operators six months to provide parental controls by default. For Martine Brousse, "if we fail to protect our children from all these sites, we may have to go further, on the phones, that is to say a systematic blocking".
La Voix de l'Enfant works with Secretary of State Adrien Taquet to identify the mechanisms of physical but also sexual violence among young people. According to Martine Brousse, it can notably come from porn, "a universe that opens up and is not controlled because the adult is absent". During the confinement, "there are young people who were confronted with this and who took action," she said. "Faced with this violence of the image, the child, sometimes the adolescent, can no longer make the difference between reality and the virtual. This can have a very very negative impact. For others, because of a young age or of a fragile psychological state, it is a trauma. It can translate into behavioral changes, violence. "