The government intends to try to tackle once again the thorny problem of minors’ access to pornographic content. Currently, it suffices to swear to be of legal age to access free adult sites, which does not stop children. In an interview with The Parisianthe Minister Delegate, in charge of the Transition digitaldigitalJean-Noël Barrot unveiled the outline of a new “ certificatecertificate of anonymous majority.
To access adult content, French Internet users must use a applicationapplication to verify their age. This application will provide a certificationcertification from a third party that the user is indeed an adult, for example his access provider or his bank. The details have not yet been published, but the CNIL (National Commission for Computing and Liberties) had published an infographic on its site in July, and has been working on this device for many months with the Minister, the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel, and Arcom (Audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority, fusionfusion CSA and Hadopi).
An easily circumvented solution thanks to a VPN
By going to a pornographic site, it provides a request to the application which will pass it on to the third party. Once validated, this document constitutes the certificate of anonymous majority. The application transmits it to the adult site which can then authorize access. The third party will not know what this request will be used for, and the site will have no information about the third party or the identity of the user. However, the question of the security of the application arises as well as that of the risk of information leaks…
This kind of protection, limited to France, will be very easy to circumvent. Thanks to a VPN, users will be able to connect via another country. There are free and reliable solutions, such as the VPN integrated into the Opera browser or the network TORTOR. However, this law could have harmful consequences since some free VPNs finance themselves by tracking their users or contain malware…
Announcement expected this week
It is difficult to imagine that all the sites, the majority of which have no domicile in France, will agree to set up this system. The cost could in particular be prohibitive for small sites, which may be tempted to ignore French law or simply block access from France.
In addition, pornographic content is freely available on some mainstream sites like Twitter or Reddit, or easily accessible in groups. TelegramTelegram et WhatsappWhatsapp. Access providers could be forced to block access to sites that do not set up the device but again, it will be enough to go through a VPN.
This new measure should come into force in September. Cnil and Arcom should present the device in more detail this week.
Soon an effective parental control for pornographic sites thanks to this solution?
The French government plans to impose the use of a credit card to access porn sites. A way to limit access to minors.
Article of Louis NephewLouis Nephewpublished on 26/10/2022
A month ago, a report emanated from the Senate entitled ” Porn hell decor indicated that 36% of boys were exposed to pornographic images before the age of 13. According to this same document, a third of boys under the age of 15 visit a pornographic site every month.
To fight against this phenomenon, in 2020, the government had imposed on operators to do everything possible to prevent minors from accessing pornographic sites. A wishful thinking obviously remained unfulfilled while France is the fourth country producing pornographic images. In fact, the government wishes to accelerate the movementmovement by enforcing this law quickly. And to achieve this, Charlotte Caubel, the Secretary of State for Children, before the Delegation for the Rights of the Child, mentioned the use of a bank card as a filter to allow access to pornographic sites. A filter that could protect 30 to 40% of minors according to her.
Objective: protect up to 40% of minors
Before the age of 16, teenagers are not supposed to be able to have a bank card, even if some banks offer them. When the teenager or child obtains one, the parents can know what transactions have been made on the bank account. This is also the example used by the Secretary of State when she explains: My child, when he uses his credit card, I get an alert, I’ll see if it’s on YouPorn or on McDo. “An argument that could also calm the ardor of adults who wish to remain discreet. If the credit card is a good way to filter the legal age to consult this kind of content, the questions of security of the banking data managed by the sites arise. Furthermore, this kind of filtering can be easily circumvented by the simple use of a VPN, even a free one.
Porn sites soon really banned for those under 18?
The Senate passed an amendment requiring adult sites to better control the age of Internet users, and thus block access to minors. Two solutions are proposed to make access more restrictive, and legal proceedings are envisaged against publishers who do not implement this restricted access.
Article by Fabrice Auclert published on June 11, 2022
How to prevent a minor from accessing the content of a pornographic site? Currently, it is enough to simply click on a button to certify that one is over 18 years old, and since this is obviously not very restrictive, the Senate validated an amendment to harden access to adult sites. Included in the bill on domestic violence, this amendment proposes to verify the age of the visitor via two solutions.
The first would be to use a credit card, and this is more or less what online betting sites already offer. When registering on a betting or gaming siteargentargent, the user must enter a credit card but also scan an identity document. A solution that could effectively slow down access to pornographic sites since you cannot have a bank card before the age of 16.
The same identification system as… taxes
Another recommended solution: France Connect. This solution ofauthenticationauthentication launched by the government is increasingly used online, whether to pay taxes or to take steps for a car registration document. Today, in France, it is the most reliable administrative identification solution. It would be enough for a porn site to add this button to its home page for it to curb the enthusiasm of any minor, and also of… adults who would not necessarily be very hot for the administration to be aware of the use of France Connect for this type of content.
Be that as it may, porn sites will have to play the game since the law indicates that the CSA can put a site on notice that does not offer one of the two solutions, and that legal proceedings will be possible with the possibility of blocking a site for French Internet users via the complicity of access providers.
