Hard blow for the associations of child protection e-Enfance and the Voice of the Child. The Paris judicial court, which they had seized in summary proceedings, on Friday rejected their request to force six French Internet service providers to block pornographic sites. In their sights: platforms that do not verify the age of Internet users or simply ask them to tick a box to certify that they are of legal age.
“The court of summary proceedings was not in a position to be able to exercise the control of the proportionality of the measures requested in compliance with the principle of contradiction”, the judge reasoned in his decision. The requesting associations “do not establish having attempted to contact” the companies publishing pornographic content while they are “identifiable and expressly identified”, he added.
“Financial interests” more important than “the protection of minors”
The decision was greeted with surprise by the lawyer for the two associations, Laurent Bayon. “We walk on the head”, he lamented, “the court gives precedence to the financial interests of suppliers over those of the protection of minors”. “If there is an emergency, the only effective way to act is on ISPs (Internet service providers)”, insisted Me Bayon, recalling that the court recognized in its decision that the access by minors to the targeted sites constituted “a manifestly unlawful disorder”.
In this case, the two associations had summoned on July 28 SFR, Orange, Bouygues Télécom, Free, Colt technologies Services and Outre mer Télécom, specifying in their request that these porn sites did not find legal notices on the names of the director of publication or host. They felt that sites like PornHub, Tukif, XNXX, xHamster, xvideos, Redtube and YouPorn make pornographic content accessible to minors by not checking the age of Internet users or by simply asking them to check a box stating that ‘they are of legal age.
By age 12, almost one in three children has been exposed to pornography
To protect minors, the associations asked the courts to shut down these websites by imposing a blocking decision on ISPs. “My clients will try to act on the pipes to turn off the tap”, explained Me Bayon during the hearing. The penal code prohibits exposing minors to pornographic photos and videos and the law on domestic violence of July 30, 2020 specifies that the companies concerned cannot exonerate themselves from their responsibilities by simply asking an Internet user if he is major. By age 12, nearly one in three children has been exposed to pornography, according to an OpinionWay poll for 20 minutes published in April 2018.
Access to the targeted pornographic sites could however be blocked by the courts. Chance of timing, the decree implementing article 23 of the law on domestic violence of July 30, 2020 was published in the Official Journal on Thursday and entered into force on Friday. It plans to entrust the President of the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) with the power to intervene with publishers or hosts of pornographic sites to ask them to act in favor of the protection of minors, and to take legal action. they did not comply.