The Paris court has decided to delay its decision pending the examination by the Council of State of the appeal against the decree imposing verification of the age of visitors.
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The Paris court postponed, Friday, July 7, its decision on a request to block five of the main pornographic sites. Justice wishes to await the examination, by the Council of State, of appeal against the decree imposing a verification of the age of visitors.
This measure of “stay of proceedings” must establish whether the absence of details in the law as to the technical procedures for preventing access by minors to pornographic sites respects “the principle of legal certainty” companies. It must also make it possible to know whether the systems envisaged by the regulator comply with the regulations on personal data, justifies the court in its decision.
The blocking request, which targets Pornhub, XVideos or even XHamster, was initiated in 2021 by Arcom, the audiovisual and digital regulator. Since 2020, the law specifies that companies cannot be exonerated from their responsibilities with a simple declaration of majority. Between procedural failures by the administrative authority and delaying maneuvers carried out by the targeted sites, nothing happened as planned, all under the impassive gaze of the telecom operators responsible for implementing a possible blockage.
The digital regulation bill under review
If the blocking is acted, French consumers of pornography, of all ages, will in theory be sent to an information page of Arcom. But this measure can be circumvented thanks to a virtual private network (VPN).
In any case, the minister is counting on his digital regulation bill, currently being examined in the Senate, to allow Arcom to do without the judge. The authority has given formal notice to three new sites, including YouPorn, and launched legal proceedings against two other platforms.