PARIS — The French government's media regulation agency has said it is currently analyzing the responses of five operators of adult tube sites who were ordered to implement age verification systems, under threat of being completely blocked in the country, after the deadline to comply passed last week.
The ultimatum delivered to the operators of Pornhub, xHamster, XVideos, XNXX and Tukif to implement age verification by Dec. 28 was prompted by recent pressure from several groups that claim to advocate on behalf of “children’s rights.”
The groups have crusaded to speed up implementation of age verification, which was mandated by a controversial amendment tacked onto a French domestic violence law passed in the summer of 2020; implementation has been delayed by court challenges and the need for EU ratification.
“We are going to review the responses given to us,” Roch-Olivier Maistre, head of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, told FranceInfo. The CSA is the French regulatory body analogous to the American FCC.
“If the situation has not evolved, we shall seize the judicial tribunal,” Maistre added, invoking the next step towards obtaining a court order to compel the country’s internet service providers to block those five sites.
The tussle between the government and these specific tube sites — described by French news outlet C News as “bras-de-fer,” or arm-wrestling — began last November, after “children’s rights” groups successfully lobbied the CSA to increase pressure on the companies.
According to a C News report today, “no changes are visible” in trying to access those tube sites in France several days after the Dec. 28 deadline.
Tukif Alleges Discriminatory Practices
The CSA's Maistre confirmed that the tube sites were not give any guidance on how to implement age verification in order to comply with the law. They should “figure it out themselves,” he added.
“It is not our responsibility” to tell them how, Maistre declared.
One of the targeted sites, the less internationally prominent Tukif, initiated a counter-proceeding at the CSA, alleging that targeting Tukif instead of much more popular tube sites — like YouPorn — shows “disproportionate and discriminatory” enforcement.
The CSA's ultimatum, Tukif representatives argued, would cause “significant market imbalance and distortion of competition to its detriment.”