This week, France will propose new regulations to prohibit kids from accessing pornographic websites, the latest round in a decades-long battle to safeguard youngsters from explicit content.
Monday, Digital Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the Parisien newspaper, “I intend to put an end to this scandal.”
The French data protection and media regulators Cnil and Arcom are expected to announce their newest recommendations to rein in pornographic websites, which are theoretically subject to an age verification rule in 2020.
Prior efforts were impeded by privacy and technical problems, as well as legal action brought by the websites.
A Paris court ordered Arcom to mediate with various pornographic websites, including market leader Pornhub, in September 2016, frustrating its efforts to prohibit them.
The Parisien said that under the new idea, those who wish to view sexual content will be required to download a mobile application that supplies them with a digital certificate and code.
The code will be required to visit a pornographic website under a system “similar to the checks your bank issues when you make an online purchase,” Barrot told the publication.
“Children will no longer have access to pornographic websites after 2023,” he continued.
Massive, common, and poisonous
During his campaign for re-election last year, President Emmanuel Macron, who is married to former schoolteacher Brigitte Macron, pledged to make protecting children from pornography a top priority.
In November, he founded the Children Internet Protection Laboratory, an effort that aims to bring together industry titans and academics in quest of online safety solutions for children.
In September of last year, French senators found in a report titled “Hell Behind the Scenes” that children’s exposure to porn was “massive, common, and toxic.”
The report discovered that two-thirds of children less than 15 have viewed pornographic material.
In recent years, a number of sexual assault allegations have rocked the French production industry, with women alleging rape, maltreatment, and manipulation by directors and fellow actors.
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