PARIS — French media regulator Arcom on Wednesday announced that it is taking action against 31 adult websites that the agency says have failed to implement age verification as required under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.
According to a statement issued by Arcom, this constitutes the agency’s most extensive age verification enforcement action to date.
The agency said it plans to utilize “various tools” provided under French and European law to ensure the targeted services implement age verification.
The statement does not name the websites or providers involved in the enforcement actions or specify where they are based. According to tech news site BFM Tech, however, 13 websites will be blocked or delisted via internet service providers, domain name resolution providers and search engines. Those sites include youjizz.com, pornoplus.com, amateurporn.com and hentaicity.com, according to BFM.
Additionally, BFM reports, Arcom will work through its counterparts in other European countries to take measures against 13 sites operating outside of French territory, including balancetanude.fr, lebon.porn, tube8 and xhlive.net.
In June, the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that France may require pornographic websites based in other EU states to implement age verification in accordance with French law, as long as France follows EU electronic commerce rules. Those include first asking the state of origin to adopt necessary measures for protecting minors and then — if the state of origin fails to adequately adopt and implement such measures — notifying the European Commission and the state of origin of the plan to adopt additional restrictive measures.
BFM reports that Arcom is taking these measures due to the sites’ unresponsiveness to the regulator’s demands for implementation of age verification.
Five other websites have received a “letter of observation” initiating Arcom’s enforcement procedures and now have 15 days to respond before facing further action, BFM reports. Those sites include borntobefuck, pornoone.com and xfrenchies.
According to Arcom, since February 2025, 35 of the most frequently visited adult sites in France have either implemented age verification solutions, no longer offer pornographic content in the country, or have been blocked at Arcom’s request.
In September 2025, Arcom announced a plan to escalate its enforcement of age verification rules to include smaller adult sites as well. The actions announced today appear to represent an expansion of that strategy.
