Pornhub is accessible in France again, following a suspension of the country’s age verification law.
The law went into effect earlier this month. It states that porn sites must install a third-party technical system to verify users’ ages beyond a “yes or no” checkbox. This requires a credit card or a government ID. On June 16, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the law until it’s deemed legal under EU law, European news site Euractiv reported.
According to the EU’s “country-of-origin principle,” established by the 2002 E-Commerce Directive, a country can’t regulate a company based in another EU state unless a specific process is followed, including notifying the host country and the European Commission, Digital Watch Observatory reported. The French government believes it has followed this process by notifying Cyprus, where Aylo (owner of platforms like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube) and XHamster is based, and waiting three months before implementing the law.
The question is whether France notified the European Commission.
Pornhub blocked itself in France on June 4 due to the law. Now, it has restored access in the country, Aylo told Mashable.
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“While important questions about the implementation of the law in France are being considered, we maintain that French citizens deserve regulation that will prevent children from accessing adult content and that can be effectively enforced,” Aylo stated over email. “They also deserve that their privacy and sensitive data be protected. Again, we believe the current approach faces significant challenges in achieving these important goals.”
The statement goes on to say that adult content is on hundreds of thousands of sites, not the few that France singled out like Pornhub. “The court’s decision to suspend the order, based on questions about compatibility with the EU’s country-of-origin principle, provides an opportunity to reconsider more effective approaches while we await the Court of Justice of the European Union’s final ruling,” it stated.
Aylo advocated for device-level filters to block minors from accessing porn, citing privacy concerns of on-site age-verification. It also states, “We are determined to be part of this solution and want to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution.”
France’s digital minister, Clara Chappaz, posted on X that she’s committed to enforcing age verification and that it is a priority.
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In the U.S., Americans are waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court on whether Texas’s age-verification law is unconstitutional. This will set a precedent for these state laws around the country, where around a third now have similar statutes. Free speech advocates have told Mashable that age-verification won’t work due to the ability to shield one’s real location with a VPN. An initial study out of NYU suggests that age verification doesn’t work for similar reasons.
After Pornhub exited France, Proton VPN saw a 1,000 percent surge in sign-ups in 30 minutes.
