PARIS — The French government and adult websites like Pornhub are clashing over whether to check the age of internet users, in a stand-off that is set to reach its climax in the coming weeks.
A new French law that is entering into force this year requires adult websites to run age checks and block users under 18 years old.
The law on Friday became applicable for websites registered in France, like French porn brand Dorcel, and those registered outside of the European Union, like OnlyFans. From June 7 the age checks will be extended to sites based in other EU countries, including the sector’s behemoths like Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube, owned by the Aylo group and based in Cyprus, and XVideos, based in the Czech Republic.
Under the law, France’s audiovisual and digital services regulator Arcom has the power to block porn sites if it deems they are not implementing age verification properly and in time.
“The Minister for Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz has told us that the first site blocks could take place this summer,” a member of parliament familiar with the matter said, granted anonymity to disclose details of confidential conversations.
Pornhub’s owner Aylo is already challenging the law in court.
For the time being, only French and non-European pornographic sites can be blocked. Starting Friday, those porn websites had to offer at least one secure age verification system that checks visitors’ ages through things like a verified identity document or even a video selfie that estimates a user’s age.
That’s led to a rush from age verification software providers to offer their services to porn websites.
There has been “definite and last-minute interest” in verification tools in the run-up to Friday’s deadline in France, said Iain Corby, the president of AVPA, a large association of such software providers. But, he added, the association for now has spotted few actual deployments.
What’s keeping age checks from popping up more widely is that they are considered a burden by internet users, and a threat to privacy by digital rights activists. Platforms for their part fear rolling out the tools before a legal deadline could mean their users go toward a site that doesn’t yet comply.
Most of the sites that have rolled out age checks are paying platforms, like France’s Dorcel, which signed a partnership agreement with the U.K.’s Yoti to deploy its age verification solutions from Thursday evening.
“All the sites want to comply,” one person at an age verification solutions provider said, granted anonymity to discuss confidential discussions. “But they’re going to wait until the last moment.”