A form of digital age verification will soon be required in order to access porn sites in France, a minister has claimed.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s Digital Transition and Telecommunications Minister, has reportedly declared that all adults will soon need to verify their age before accessing porn sites in the country, with anonymous consumption of porn soon to allegedly be blocked in the country.
The announced measure bares a striking resemblance to a proposed porn block the United Kingdom attempted to implement a number of years ago, but which was eventually abandoned after realising the technical limitations and dangers to people’s privacy from the planned age verification requirement poses.
According to a report by Le Parisien, France’s government aims to have the porn block implemented by September, with state agencies reportedly working on a two-factor authentication-style system for age verification, similar to that already used by many banks in the country.
“In 2023, it’s the end of access to pornographic sites for our children!” minister Barrot reportedly declared, adding that the certificate will be “anonymous”.
“France will be the first country in the world to propose a solution like this,” he continued, adding that the proposed solution could also be rolled out to social media signups and online alcohol sales in the future.
Despite the minister’s seeming enthusiasm about the plan, this is far from the first time a European state has tried to implement age verification to block youngsters from accessing porn.
The United Kingdom under then-Prime Minister Theresa May also launched the idea of blocking young people from viewing the content, with prospective users being required to provide a valid form of I.D. digitally should they want to access adult content.
However, concerns surrounding both privacy problems — with it being feared that a possible hack could expose many porn users and their tastes — as well as the limited effectiveness of the measure ultimately scuttled the programme in 2019.
A similar measure has since been rolled out earlier this year in the U.S. state of Louisiana, though it has also reportedly been plagued with a number of serious issues regarding effectiveness.
According to a report by Vice, the porn block can easily be circumvented using a VPN, with other sites reporting that the act of even switching from using wi-fi to 5G was sometimes enough to bypass the state block.
Many porn sites also do not appear to be obeying the new restrictions, and while some major providers are reportedly requiring users in the state to prove their age via their digital state ID, other smaller outlets are allowing free access in the same way as before.