PornHub, Tukif, XNXX, xHamster, xvideos, Redtube and YouPorn soon blocked in France?

A court decision will be rendered by the Paris court on October 8 in response to an emergency procedure brought by two child protection associations.

They accuse pornographic websites of not checking the age of Internet users or of simply asking them to tick a box to certify that they are of legal age. 

"The one and only way to protect minors is to ask the courts to shut down these websites and to impose this blocking decision on ISPs (Internet service providers)," insisted the lawyer for the associations. e-Enfance et la Voix de l'Enfant, Me Laurent Bayon, calling for a "rapid and effective decision". 

Asking for age is not enough by law

The penal code prohibits the accessibility to minors of pornographic content, and since 2020 the law specifies that the companies concerned cannot exonerate themselves from their responsibilities by simply asking an Internet user if he is of legal age, argued the lawyer. For their part, lawyers for ISPs (such as Orange, SFR, Bouygues, Free ...) affirmed at the hearing that their clients were "proactive" to prevent minors' access to pornography. 

"We are not hostile to the action taken and will apply any blocking measure," said Pierre-Olivier Chartier, lawyer for SFR.

For the representative of the prosecution, Florence Lifchitz, "without significant action, the situation will only get worse".

"Pornographic content is found through smartphones in all pockets," she observed, referring to the "imperative protection" due to minors.

A portal to protect your children from porn

A law adopted in 2020 gave the President of the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) the power to intervene with publishers or site hosts, to ask them to act in favor of the protection of minors.

But its implementing decree has not yet been published.

When questioned, the cabinet of the Secretary of State in charge of child protection, Adrien Taquet, indicated that it would be "in the coming weeks".

In February, the government launched an Internet portal, jeprotegemonenfant.gouv.fr, to help adults better protect their children against online pornography, a phenomenon that concerns an alarming proportion of minors.

According to a 2018 survey, nearly a third of young people have seen porn before age 12, over 60% before age 15 and 82% before age 18.

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