France blocks 4 porn sites for lack of robust age checks

France has begun blocking pornographic web sites that refused to implement age checks beyond user declaration, following a ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal.

Four websites euronews reports are hosted outside of the EU, TuKif, xHamster, MrSexe, and IciPorno, were ruled to have taken insufficient measures to protect the best interests of children. The case stems from a domestic violence law passed in 2020.

The websites have 15 days to implement some kind of adequate age assurance system, or the block will become indefinite.

A similar fate could be coming for other large porn sites, like Pornhub and Youporn, that are hosted in the EU, pending a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

France’s media regulator Arcom published a technical reference document for the age verification measures pornography sites must take just a week ago. The guidance gives online porn providers three months to deploy rigorous age checks, such as biometric facial age estimation with liveness detection.

Several large pornography companies are in the midst of a legal battle over their designation as “Very Large Online Platforms” under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which carries age verification implications.

The U.S. and UK, meanwhile, are forming a joint working group to increase children’s online safety. The group will work on protecting young people from a range of online harms, including sexual abuse, harassment and cyberbullying.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  children  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  France  |  regulation