If they had hoped to escape it, it’s missed! The giants of X Pornhub and Youporn will really have to verify the age of their users, in order to prohibit their access to minors, under penalty of being blocked in France.
It’s a hard blow for Pornhub and Youporn! The obligation for X sites to verify that their users are actually major applies to these two online porn giants.
Being established in other countries of the European Union than France, they thought they escaped it, but a ministerial decree published this Thursday, March 6, 2025 decided otherwise. They now have three months to implement a system of age verification “respectful of privacy and effective”, under penalty of financial sanctions or even blocking in France, specifies the Ministry of Culture in a press release.
Indeed, following the law aimed at securing and regulating the digital space (SREN) voted in 2024, which arises itself from the AVIA law of 2020, most X sites have been forced, since January 11, 2025, to control the age of their users by offering them several solutions published by external providers, to send a video selfie so that a identity. Yet another twist in a long -term battle so that minors cannot go to this type of platform.
X sites: a pure age verification
Indeed, most of the pornographic sites in France indicate on their home page that they are pornographic and that access is prohibited for minors: “This website reserved for a major and warned audience complies with all the French regulations in force. It contains texts, photos and videos classified X which can strike the sensitivity of certain people”. But that stops there. It is therefore very easy for a child, whatever their age, to click on the “Enter” button by certifying on honor “have read the pornographic nature of this site and be of age according to the laws in force in [s]we state or [s]We country “.
In short, this is a pure form warning which in no way prevents pornographic content and, moreover, contravenes French law (see our article). This is very problematic since, according to the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom), 2.3 million minors would frequent sites X. Hence the need for the Government to tighten legislation.
Blocking X sites: a compulsory age verification system
To help X sites comply with this new legislation, the Arch published in October 2024 a retaining technical repository “The minimum technical requirements, applicable to age verification systems set up by online services, which provide the public pornographic content from the public”. This includes in particular a facial recognition system integrated into an age estimate device by analysis of facial features – provided that it can verify that it is indeed a living being and not a photograph or a recorded video – and a double anonymity solution.
Concretely, the user will have to download an application – created by a private company – and download a document proving its majority (identity document, driving license, bank contract, etc.). It is this same application that will confirm to the adult site that the Internet user is major, without revealing his identity, which will allow connection. In this way, the site receives no other information about it. Here too, it will be necessary to use facial recognition, so that the trusted third party can ensure that the user who uses the application is the same as that on identity documents – a teenager can very well take the identity document of another family member.
To allow pornographic sites to organize themselves, Arch authorizes them to use a bank card form until April 2025 with “A transaction at zero euro“To filter minor Internet users (see our article). This solution is only temporary because it opens the way to online scams – especially with the creation of mirror sites – and it is quite easy to get around, since it is enough for a minor to borrow the card of her parents. After this date, sites X express sanctions if they do not meet the requirements. The fine may amount to 6 % of their turnover, order their blockage on French territory.
Pornographic sites: What sites are affected by blocking?
However, there is a small problem: initially, this law did not apply to all pornographic sites. Indeed, unlike the first version of the bill, the adopted text only concerned the platforms established in France – such as Jacquie and Michel – or outside the European Union. As a result, porn giants like Pornhub, XVIDEOS, Xhamster – the three most consulted adult sites in France – or Youporn were therefore theory spared. This change was due to the European Commission, which had reminded several times to the government that, under The Electronic Commerce Directive From 2000, suppliers of these online services are subject to the EU to the law of the Member State in which they are established, not to other national rules.
However, the Paris Court of Appeal had asked, last October, that ISPs technically prevent access to several pornographic sites which do not check the age of Internet users, namely Pornhub, Mrsex, ICIPORNO, XNXX, XVIDEOS, YOUPORN, REDTUBE, TUKIF and XHAMSTER. The jurisdiction had finally ordered the blocking of Tukif, Xhamster, Mrsex and here within 15 days, “Until the implementation by the latter is demonstrated by a control other than purely declarative” of the majority of its users. On the other hand, the other sites, which had raised a question relating to European law, had been exempt, French justice awaiting a decision of the EU Court of Justice. But that was before the ministerial decree!
Pornographic sites: an easy to go around blocking
But legislation is not the only difficulty faced by the authorities. Indeed, let’s not forget that nothing is ever really hidden on the web. Even if the sites are dereferenced and no longer appear in search engines (Google, Bing, Qwant and others), it only takes a little research to find them. However, teens do not lack imagination or reflexes to achieve what they want.
Installing a VPN, a server that allows the Internet user to relocate virtually from France, that is to say to make FAI believe that it is in a foreign country having no regulations against classified X sites, is one of these methods. Another method is to modify the DNS of the computer. You just have to know a minimum the settings of the computer settings and, in three minutes chrono, the operation is successful. With age verification, access to porn sites will therefore be a little more complicated, of course, but not impossible.
In addition, the Internet is like Lerne’s Hydra: it is cut a head, it pushes two. If minors can no longer access their favorite adult sites, there is no doubt that they will find others on the web. And that’s without counting platforms like X (ex Twitter) that allow adult videos, including pedophiles and zoophiles … In short, there is still a long way to do!