France to block porn sites for minors | Abroad

“In 2023, our children will have no access to pornographic sites,” government member Jean-Noël Barrot told Le Parisien newspaper. The details of the measure will be proposed during the week and will be implemented from September, the newspaper said.

All adult websites will have to comply, said the minister, otherwise they will no longer be accessible in the country. According to Barrot, France will be the first country in the world to propose such a solution.

The age check must be done through a “digital certificate”, the technical details of which have not yet been determined. The aim will be to preserve the anonymity of the internet users for the websites.
Currently, porn sites ask users to confirm their age by entering their date of birth, or even more simply by clicking “I am of legal age”.

The United Kingdom is also trying to better filter access with its online safety law, which is now being discussed in parliament. The government wants to require websites to use reliable age verification technology.

In Louisiana, a state in the southern United States, a law since January 1 requires that a copy of an identity document be presented before accessing websites where at least one-third of the content is “harmful to minors”.

While there is a consensus to make it more difficult for minors to access pornography, the various plans to introduce age-verification worldwide have come up against the problem of personal data protection.