After years of development by the authorities, age verification is now mandatory for pornographic sites in France. If the objective is to prevent minors from accessing this type of content, the effectiveness of this measure still raises questions today.
A system that must guarantee anonymity
During the first three months of implementation of the legislation, users will have to prove their age by entering their bank card details. Then, you will either have to send a video of your face, an artificial intelligence will be responsible for analyzing it to determine the age, or scan your identity document.
Legislators have developed a sophisticated system to best preserve data confidentiality. Thus, a first host will collect sensitive data such as video or identity document, without knowing for which site the user is carrying out the verification. A second provider will only send a confirmation of age to the pornographic site, without knowing the identity or precise data of the user.
Not all sites are in the same boat
Age verification does not currently apply to all pornographic sites accessible in France. Only platforms hosted in France or outside the European Union (EU) are affected. In question, the subtleties of European law, and in particular the “ free movement of information society services “.
This principle ensures that digital services, including websites, can be freely offered from one Member State to another, as long as they comply with the rules in force in their country of origin. Concretely, if a host of pornographic content is established in a region of the EU where regulations regarding age verification are more flexible or non-existent, it can continue to distribute its content in France without being required to comply with the requirements imposed. by its laws.
Problem is, some of the most popular porn sites, like Pornhub, xHamster, Xvideos or even Xnxx, are hosted in the EU.
Techniques to circumvent the measures
Furthermore, countries that have introduced legislation similar to the SREN law have noted an explosion in VPN downloads: people excluded from the platforms circumvent the rules by pretending to be in other countries. They also risk turning to other, darker sites, where almost no moderation is applied. Enough to expose them to even more dangerous, unfiltered or illegal content.
Although the need for action is glaring, with the consumption of pornographic content by minors having exploded over the last decade, the way forward is extremely complex.
- Since January 11, pornographic sites must verify the age of users.
- To get started, users must prove their age by inserting their bank card details.
- Platforms hosted within the European Union, but not in France, are not affected by this measure.
By: Opera
