Game over! Several popular pornographic sites in France will soon become inaccessible, French operators have received an order from the Paris Court of Appeal to block access to Tukif, XHamster… The reason? These sites have not implemented the necessary checks to ensure that minors do not access their catalog of adult videos.
The only solution will remain the VPN
France is preparing to block several pornographic sites in the next 15 days. XHamster, Tukif, Mrsexe and Iciporno must be inaccessible by November 1, both on internet boxes and via the mobile plans of all operators. This decision could also concern giants like Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and Xnxx.
This decision follows a complaint filed by two child protection associations. They criticize these sites for not having put in place real barriers to prevent minors from accessing unsuitable content. According to the associations, the simple fact of asking the question “Are you an adult?” to access thousands of videos, some of which contain potentially violent content, is clearly insufficient and alarming.
The associations believe that platforms must assume greater responsibility for the protection of minors.
Arcom and age verification
Faced with this problem, Arcom (Regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication) has recently tightened its requirements. It is now requiring these sites to implement more rigorous age verification systems, such as using a credit card to confirm the majority of visitors.
The Paris Court of Appeal has already applied this decision to sites hosted outside the European Union. For platforms based in the EU, the decision will depend on an upcoming opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). However, for those who will be blocked, ways like using VPNs or changing DNS could help bypass these restrictions.
This legal offensive against adult sites could well extend to other platforms in the weeks to come. The sites mentioned at the start of the article are still accessible at present, but will become inaccessible from France within a few days.
