Lthe first time they access the online pornography, children are on average 11 years old. However, in France, such content is prohibited for minors under 18 by law. This law, however, is very easy to get around, given that to access these sites you actually just need to click on the home page, simply saying that you are of age without any control that is the truth.
Online pornography, too many minors on the net
This is why France wants to be the first country in the world to protect children from accessing this universe which «builds the imagination and sexuality of young people around brutality that accompanies the images” as President Macron denounced already three years ago, adding how much it is the task of the State “protect minors in any way from these contents».
Illegal access to pornographyin fact, is considered a real emergency across the Alps, but if over the years there are those who have tried several times to ask for measures that have never been implemented, now maybe it’s time for a turning point.
France wants to be the first country in the world to protect children from accessing pornographic sites (Photo Getty)
Digital passport to prove the age of majority
The French government, in fact, will present a system that has been under study for months to restrict access to adult sites only to users who certify their age through an app to be downloaded on the mobile phone. The idea seems good, but there is always the Internet in between. Which is no small thing. The idea is just to use an application similar to that of bankscapable of guaranteeing the security of online purchases by requesting further verification of the user’s identity.
Easier said that done
The application will act as an intermediary between the user and the site, transmitting data back and forth, without personal information being exchanged. The age passport system will be presented by the end of this week, with the aim of making it fully functional by next September, at the beginning of the new school year. According to the Government, once approved, “pornographic sites will have to comply with the law which obliges them to really check the age of their users, otherwise we will ban the diffusion on the national territory”. Easier said than done.
Online pornography, the law may not work
In fact, the debate is open, for various reasons, among which the very high risk that the restriction does not work stands out. In fact, even if the most used sites like YouPorn or PornHub accepted the conditions of the French Government, it is by no means certain that minors at that point choose less known, less controlled and perhaps even more extreme sites.
In short, the law is much awaited. In the meantime, however, to find out if the French digital passport will prove to be the solution, the French Digital Education Observatory (Open) believes that at the moment only a greater presence of adults alongside minor children can limit the damage.
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