“It’s a question of political will and the will of public power”, pleads Laurence Rossignol, who is delighted to see one of his proposals adopted by the executive.
“Consumption and visits to websites by minors” must be “a public health priority”, estimated Sunday May 7 on franceinfo the socialist senator Laurence Rossignol, co-rapporteur of an investigation into the pornographic industry in France, while the government intends to entrust the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) the power to order, without going through a judge, the blocking by operators and the delisting of pornographic sites that do not prevent minors from accessing their content. For the elected official of Oise, Arcom must have “the means to monitor what is happening” on the internet.
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franceinfo: Does this measure correspond exactly to what you imagined?
Laurence Rossignol: Listen, yes. I am delighted that the government has taken up one of the proposals that we made because there is a law which was passed in 2020 and which requires pornographic sites to verify the age of visitors. However, this law is not applied because the sites are dragging their feet, citing technological solutions that are impossible to implement, technical difficulties, and we have so far been unable to enforce the law. The sites consider that not only do they have a legal obligation, but that it is up to us to provide the technological means of this legal obligation.
“This is the first time that we have been told that we cannot apply the law because we do not have a technological solution. However, technological solutions exist.”
Laurence Rossignol, PS senator for Oiseat franceinfo
For other things, the world of the Internet manages very well on its own to invent various technological solutions without asking the legislator what they think of them. So there, we made a bill so that Arcom could directly, by an administrative decision, order the blocking of sites that did not comply with the obligation to prevent minors from visiting them.
Do we have the means to enforce this?
The means… It is a question of political will and the will of public authorities. This requires human means to monitor what is happening on the Net. Thus, Arcom can absolutely have the means to enforce the law, it just needs to be given the means in terms of personnel and that it is admitted that the consumption and frequentation of Internet sites by minors is a public health priority.
The government has been testing a new age verification solution for access to porn sites since March. Some fear a filing. How do you answer them?
You have to choose not just technological solutions. You have to choose between what might be considered disadvantages.
“Today, the Internet is a space of global crime, it is a jungle in which it is very difficult to enforce the law.”
Laurence Rossignol, PS senator for Oiseat franceinfo
There is no reason that what is forbidden in real life should be possible on the Internet. And when I talk about disadvantages to be assessed, you have to ask yourself the question: should we fight crime on the Internet and protect children or should we protect adult consumers of porn who want to be able to consume porn while preserving their anonymity? Me, my choice is the preservation of minors, the protection of children rather than that of the anonymity of porn consumers.
If these people are ashamed of what they are doing and they don’t want to identify themselves when they use porn, they just have to stop using it. When you take any action on the Internet, when you make the slightest purchase, you give your contact details, you give your address, your email address, your telephone number. And so nobody complains at that time of not being protected by anonymity!