Five pornographic sites – Pornhub, Tukif, Xhamster, Xvideos, Xnxx – have been ordered by the French regulatory authority for the audiovisual sector to prevent their access to minors, according to formal notices published Monday on the regulator’s website.
“The regulator ensures, in accordance with the law, its mission of protecting minors. […] With these decisions, we appeal to the responsibility of operators, who must put in place the necessary measures to prevent minors from accessing their content, ”the Superior Audiovisual Council told AFP (CSA ).
In the event of non-compliance with this obligation within 15 days, the sites run the risk of their access being blocked.
Two of them, Cyprus-based Pornhub and Xhamster, are owned by porn giant MindGeek, also the owner of YouPorn, which is based in Montreal but legally domiciled in Luxembourg. Xvideos and Xnxx are installed in the Czech Republic and Tukif in Portugal.
“A minor and, in particular, a child who finds himself in front of unsuitable content, such as pornographic content, can be permanently […] shocked, ”argued the CSA.
The Penal Code prohibits exposing minors to pornographic photos and videos, and the French law on domestic violence of July 30, 2020 specifies that the companies concerned cannot exonerate themselves from their responsibilities by simply asking a Internet user if he is of age.
Since the entry into force of this law, the president of the CSA can seize the president of the judicial court to request the blocking of the offending sites to the providers of Internet access.
The CSA took this decision after being informed at the end of November 2020 by three associations, the Observatory of parenthood and digital education, the National Union of family associations and the French Council of associations for the rights of the child. .
These three organizations initially targeted eight pornographic sites. The latter were, they wrote at the time, in violation, because “they only included a simple disclaimer “, A warning message allowing the Internet user to declare that they are of legal age,” for the sole purpose of restricting their access by minors “.
Several child protection associations have been sounding the alarm for months before the upsurge in the viewing of violent and very raw images by increasingly young minors.