For several months, the government has been preparing a device to control the age of Internet users who wish to access pornography. If this project has focused on platforms specialized in this content from the beginning, the Minister of Digital Affairs confirmed on Wednesday February 15 that any site that hosts pornography would be affected.
Porn sites won’t be the only ones having to verify the age of their users. While the French government is preparing to present a device to prevent those under 18 years of age from accessing pornographic content, the delegated minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications assures that even social networks should be concerned.
question in an online media video cabbage magazinepublished on Wednesday, February 15, Minister Jean-Noël Barrot affirms that “ as soon as there are pornographic images that are disseminated on a platform, whether it is called Twitter, whether it is called Pornhub […]age verification will apply at 18 years old».
🚨 Excluded @Koolmag_off
🔞PORN🔞
According to the minister @jnbarrotTwitter will be subject to the same age verification rules as Pornhub, Youporn, etc.@BestInternetF @open_asso @ThomasRohmer @CharlotteCaubel @jnbarrot @NikitaBellucciX @AdrienTaquet @TwitterFrance pic.twitter.com/WRKpZ3m8qU
— @KOOL Magazine (@Koolmag_off) February 15, 2023
Porn accessible on Twitter from the age of 13
Although French law prohibits exposing minors under 18 to such content, the average age of first contact with pornography is 11 in France, the newspaper recalls. the parisian.
Since 2020, a new law empowers Arcom (Audiovisual and Digital Communications Regulatory Authority) to sue sites that do not control the age of their visitors. Therefore, the government has been developing for several months a system to verify most Internet users as soon as they enter these platforms.
Beyond the sites explicitly identified as pornographic and regularly named by the minister, some like Twitter or Reddit have more conciliatory moderation rules on these topics, only blocking unregistered users from sex and nudity. However, as statedcabbage magazineTwitter is an authorized social network from the age of 13.
Several questions remain unanswered
Jean-Noël Barrot’s answer is therefore unequivocal: any site that hosts pornography will be affected by this tool. But there are still many unanswered questions.
Since when and on what scale will these sites be considered as hosts of pornography? Similarly, will pornographic content posted by a user on a forum force administrators to verify the identity of all visitors?
The other thorny issue is also related to respect for the privacy of Internet users who choose to verify their age. The CNIL (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés) closely monitors that the sites visited do not have access to the identity of French Internet users, and Jean-Noël Barrot promises that this will be done anonymously. Response in March, date set by the Minister for a first test of the device.
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