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French Digital Minister Clara Chappaz has admitted it’s possible to bypass age verification on pornographic platforms by using a VPN – but on the sidelines during the Telecom Council meeting on Friday she told Euractiv that age checks still significantly reduce children’s access to inappropriate content.
After three major pornographic websites, including Pornhub, blocked access to French users last week, the Swiss privacy software maker Proton suggested in a post on X that it’s seen a surge in people using its VPN software in France, presumably in a bid to circumvent the porn blocks.
VPN services are software tools that create a secure, encrypted tunnel which allows users to hide their IP address – effectively masking their location from websites and service providers.
“There will always be a way to circumvent [blocked content], but it [the law] makes it much harder,” said Chappaz on Friday. “Psychologically, it [viewing porn] puts children in a position of being a victim,” she added.
If a user seeks to override the block on access to pornographic content it is still something that is forbidden, she pointed out, arguing: “It changes the way the problem is getting addressed, and that’s super important.”
The French law requires both local and global porn platforms to implement age verification mechanisms on their websites in a way that’s designed to curb minors’ access to adult content (such as by not displaying any porn prior to the user’s age being checked).
“The law is very clear for porn websites… and it is [website’s] responsibility [to comply],” Chappaz added.
She compared the situation to going to a nightclub – “what we are trying to have now is on those websites, not just a door – and tell kids don’t push the door – but have someone to check the age of the users,” she added.
The French regulator ARCOM has prepared guidelines for pornographic websites on what kind of age verification technologies are acceptable.
Chappaz demonstrated one such age check app to Euractiv – called AgeVerif, which is used by a porn platform called Pornovere – describing it as a good example that other websites could use.
France also intends to go further on minor protection and will advocate for a social media ban for children under 15 years old. “We will continue to work on this topic,” Chappaz confirmed.
(NL)
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