the government wants the Arcom to be able to block the sites, without the approval of a judge

The government wishes to entrust the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) with the power to order, without waiting for a court decision, the blocking by operators and the delisting of pornographic sites that do not prevent minors from access their content, learned franceinfo confirming information from the Journal du Dimanche. “It is urgent to remove our children from the surge of pornographic images freely available on the Internet”said Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition Jean-Noël Barrot.

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By giving full powers to the regulator, the government is going back on the mechanism put in place by the law of July 30, 2020 which obliges the companies concerned cannot exonerate themselves from their responsibilities by simply asking a user if he is of legal age. . Arcom had launched a first series of formal notices against five pornographic sites at the end of 2021, including giants in the sector such as Pornhub or Xvidéos. The court decision on the request to block these sites initiated by Arcom is expected on July 7.

The measure is part of the bill to “securing and regulating the digital space” which will be presented Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, then examined in the Senate this summer and at the start of the school year in the National Assembly. Since the end of March, the executive has been working on an age verification in “double anonymity” ensuring the age of Internet users accessing pornographic sites, in order to block access to minors, is particularly at work.