Docaposte, the digital subsidiary of the La Poste group, could well hold the key to forcing X sites to finally verify the majority of their visitors. She is currently experimenting with a double anonymity system on several adult sites.
Could the puzzle of verifying the age of users on pornographic sites finally be solved? The Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) has been trying for more than a year to block major pornographic sites (Pornhub, Tukif, Xhamster, Xnxx, Xvideos, etc.), which do not sufficiently control access. minors to their contents, contrary to what the law provides. They are content with a purely formal warning which in no way prevents you from seeing pornographic content (see our article). Result: every month, 2.3 million minors visit pornographic sites, according to a study of Arcom.
Several solutions have been considered, but the best seems to be a verification application based on a double anonymity system. It would make it possible to certify the age of the Internet user arriving on the pornographic site thanks to a digital certificate. And that’s good, Docaposte, the digital subsidiary of the La Poste group, could well have the solution. As announced in A press release, the company is testing a unique solution within the Child Protection Laboratory, which the Government created last year to make progress on the issue. Its solution must respond to three major challenges: the protection of minors, respect for the privacy of users, and an open system offering various means of identification.
Docaposte: a double anonymity system
To implement this double anonymity, Docaposte has developed an application and a platform. The user can use the application to validate their majority, using an identity card or a selfie, for example. Then, the application sends this proof of majority to the Docaposte platform by anonymizing it, without disclosing any personal information. Likewise, it does not know the site the user wants to access with the proof of age. The Docaposte platform then confirms to the site that the user is indeed an adult. To put it simply, the platform serves as an intermediary, an airlock to guarantee the protection of personal data.
For the moment, Docaposte relies on three methods of identification: La Poste’s digital identity, the use of its identity document (controlled by a remote identity verification service) and a number. Mastercard bank card. It is the user who chooses the identification mode. The company specifies that negotiations are underway to add new partners to the platform and expand the range of identification options. This solution has already been tested for several weeks on adult sites, the names of which have not been revealed. Testing will be completed in early 2024.
Docaposte: a solution likely to become widespread?
“It’s a double challenge today: that of protecting minors, but also that of protecting Internet users and their identity. No one has to prevent an adult from going to a pornographic site, but above all, their identity does not must not be revealed”, explains Candice Dauge, director of digital identity solutions at Docaposte, to BFMTV. The company subsequently hopes to generalize its solution to other platforms, such as online alcohol and tobacco sales sites, video games with violent or adult content, or even social networks.
But Docaposte is not alone in this regard. The La Poste subsidiary competes with start-ups such as the British Yoti, which is also part of the Child Protection Laboratory. She has developed facial feature recognition algorithms that can verify the age of users through a photo. Its technologies have been validated by the British government and German digital regulators, while its solution is already used by Instagram and is currently being tested by the FDJ (see our article). However, this method is not infallible and raises certain questions regarding the protection of privacy and anonymity online. For its part, Dorcel has decided to collaborate with the French application GreenBadg, which is entirely dedicated to double anonymity.
To stand out, Docaposte claims a solution guaranteeing anonymity, absence of traceability and sovereignty, since the data centers are located in France. In addition, the company has a certain credibility in the data protection landscape, since it is certified by ANSSI (National Agency for Information Systems Security) and currently manages more than 45 million medical records, making it the leading operator in this area. This is promising!