For the second time, Pornhub has ceased operations in France – this time after the age verification law was reinstated. The company states that the new requirements are not only ineffective in protecting children but also pose serious risks to user privacy.
UNN reports this with reference to Mashable.
Details
As the publication notes, "Pornhub ceased operations in France last month in anticipation of the country's age verification law coming into force."
However, after a few weeks, the law's enforcement was suspended, and the platform resumed operations. But now, Pornhub has blocked itself again due to the reinstatement of the law.
France's Age Verification Law It requires porn sites to implement a third-party system for verifying visitors' ages. This system must also be "double-blind," meaning the porn site does not know the visitor's age, and the verification system does not know which site they are accessing.
On June 16, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the law, citing EU regulations.
On July 15, the State Council overturned the suspension. On the same day, Aylo (which owns Pornhub and other adult sites such as YouPorn and Redtube) issued a statement announcing that it was ceasing operations in France again.
While important questions regarding the implementation of the law in France are still being considered, we maintain that French citizens deserve regulation that will prevent children from accessing adult content and that can be effectively enforced.
"They also deserve protection of their privacy and sensitive data. Again, we believe that the current approach faces significant difficulties in achieving these important goals," the company added.
Aylo further states that age verification every time someone visits a site does not protect minors, but rather "jeopardizes privacy through potential data leaks."
It also noted that these laws put children at risk by directing them to websites that do not comply with the laws.
We ask the French government and Arcom (the communications regulator – ed.), how many minors have been protected in the six weeks since this law came into force?
Provide data on how this has reduced access to age-inappropriate content
These same concerns were expressed by free speech advocates to Mashable: age-verified sites won't work, they're easily bypassed with VPNs, and they have privacy and online security issues.
Specifically, Proton VPN recorded a 1000% increase in registrations in France within 30 minutes of the initial block.
Aylo advocates for platform-level filters to prevent minors from accessing these websites.
Addition
The US Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of Texas's age verification law, setting a legal precedent for the implementation of similar norms in other states.
In response, Pornhub restricted access to its content in most of them. Meanwhile, in the UK, the age verification law will come into force on July 25 – Pornhub plans to comply with the new requirements and continue operating in the country.
Earlier, UNN wrote that the French government stated it would appeal the decision made by the Administrative Court of Paris on Monday, July 16, which canceled the obligation for porn sites created in the EU to verify users' ages.
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