This Thursday, September 9, the most popular pornographic sites in France could become inaccessible. Pornhub, Youporn, Xvideos, RedTube … would therefore be suspended in the territory. The e-Enfance and Voix de l’Enfant associations denounce that their content is too easy to access for minors.
The TGI of Paris was seized in summary by this legal action and should render its decision this Thursday. The associations for the protection of children and the support of minors in the digital world have thus assigned all the French Internet service providers and demand that they take the necessary measures to block access to nine pornographic sites. the most popular.
Orange, SFR, Bouygues Télécom, Free, Colt Technologies Services and Outre mer Télécom are thus concerned. For e-Enfance and La Voix de l’Enfant, pornographic sites do not verify the age of Internet users or only claim to affirm that they are over 18 by clicking “yes” on a welcome window. Measures deemed light with regard to the content hosted by these sites, especially since other more restrictive technical measures exist and could be put in place.
To bend Internet service providers (ISPs), the association’s lawyer, Me Laurent Bayon, relies on the penal code which “prohibits leaving pornographic content accessible to minors”; but also on the recent law on domestic violence of 2020 which underlines that “asking an Internet user if he is of age is not enough to exonerate the company of its responsibilities”. The lawyer explains that he attacked suppliers first, because “the companies that own these sites are opaque and almost untouchable because of their mode of organization, often being located in tax havens. My clients will try to act on the pipes to turn off the tap ”.
The operators do not oppose it
If the ISPs put forward the rules of net neutrality and freedom of expression to explain why these pornographic sites are still accessible, the majority agrees that if the court decision of the Paris TGI confirms their blocking , the decision will be implemented.
“Access providers cannot take the initiative to block without a court decision. We will obviously and diligently apply any decision of the judge asking us to block such sites, ”explained the Altice group (SFR). An opinion shared by Orange.