While it risks being blocked by the courts because minors can access its pornographic content, the PornHub site affirms before the Paris court on Tuesday September 6 that the verification of the age of its users comes up against the laws on the protection of privacy. The lawyer for MG Freesites, the publisher of PornHub, questions the constitutionality of such verification.
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Tuesday morning, five of the main pornographic sites accessible in France, namely PornHub, Tukif, Xhamster, Xvideos and Xnxx, were summoned before the Paris court, after a referral to the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom ), which criticizes them for making no effort to prevent minors from accessing their pornographic content. But the court did not address the merits of the case. He first examined a priority question of constitutionality, filed by MG Freesites.
His lawyer, Me Elsa Rodrigues, questions the constitutionality of Arcom’s approach and therefore of article 23 of the law of July 30, 2020 which aims to protect minors and which allows the regulator to put websites in default, or even to seize the judicial court of Paris.
According to the lawyer for MG freesites, to date there is no legal, satisfactory and proven process for verifying the age of visitors to their sites. She specifies that even the CNIL has established it. #porn #arcom @franceinfo
— Mathilde Lemaire (@MathildeL75) September 6, 2022
The lawyer felt in court that age verification on the internet is a subject “very difficult“.”My client is asked to carry out an age verification, which is technically and legally impossible“, she said. The lawyer admitted that the button which asks users if they are of legal age when they connect to the website is not satisfactory, but she assures that it does not There is currently no legal, satisfactory and proven process for verifying the age of visitors to a site.
Opposite, Arcom’s lawyer, Me Nicolas Jouanin, hammered home that age verification is certainly not “not easy, but not impossible” and “the protection of minors deserves some effort“, recalling that some content of porn sites is particularly violent.
The public prosecutor recalled that online betting sites had been forced, for other reasons, to actually verify the age of their visitors and that they had succeeded. According to him, if respect for privacy is a fundamental value, so is child protection.
The Paris court will render its decision on October 4 on the priority question of constitutionality filed by the publisher of PornHub. In addition, Thursday, September 8, he will decide on an injunction to mediate or not between porn sites and Arcom. Lawyers for the websites didn’t seem to object, but the regulator isn’t in favor of it.