PARIS — France’s minister for digital affairs confirmed yesterday that a government-issued “digital certificate” certifying a person’s age will be necessary to view any adult content online in that country starting in September.
Minister for Digital Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot told newspaper Le Parisien that the new digital certificate will be unveiled this week, with full implementation planned for September.
"2023 is the end of access to pornographic sites for our children," Barrot declared.
“The first time they access a pornographic site,” he continued, “children are on average 11 years old. Yet it is forbidden in France to expose under-18s to this kind of content. But in reality, it is enough to click on the homepage of these sites, promising to be of age, to discover videos whose content can shock or, worse, traumatize. I intend to put an end to this scandal.”
Barrot warned all adult websites to comply “under penalty of seeing the broadcasting prohibited on the national territory,” adding, “France will be the first country in the world to propose a solution like this.”
"This technical solution that we are working on could be used to enforce the age limits that exist in our law, but which are not sufficiently respected online," Barrot continued, although he admitted that the specifics have not been finalized.
Critics have noted that implementation of the digital certificate “could face complications relating to the issue of personal data protection,” EuroNews reported today.
In October, while promoting a similar age verification scheme, French Secretary of State for Childhood Charlotte Caubel conflated CSAM with legal adult material, and echoed a sensationalistic report about “the infernal porn industry,” produced by a French Senate committee and SWERF organizations.
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