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The French Parliament unanimously agreed on Thursday to introduce a nationwide age verification system for pornography websites, months after President Emmanuel Macron pledged to protect children against such content.
Macron made the protection of children against adult content online a high-profile issue well before the coronavirus crisis hit. In January, tech companies, internet services providers and the adult movies industry signed a voluntary charter, pledging to roll out tools to help ensure minors don't have access to pornographic content.
Within a broader law on domestic violence, the Senate decided in June to introduce an amendment requiring pornography websites to implement an age verification mechanism.
In order to enforce the law, the French audiovisual regulator CSA will be granted new powers to audit and sanction companies that do not comply — sanctions could go as far as blocking access to the websites in France with a court order.
The choice of verification mechanisms will be left up to the platforms. But lawmakers have suggested using credit card verification — a system first adopted by the U.K., which mulled similar plans to control access to pornography but had to drop them in late 2019 because of technical difficulties and privacy concerns. Italy also approved a similar bill in late June, which raised the same concerns over its feasibility and compliance with the EU laws.
[...] The Senate has already voted on the bill. Following an agreement today between senators and lawmakers from the lower house National Assembly, a final vote will be held again in the Senate where the bill is expected to pass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:21PM (3 children)
Not to mention that foreign websites might opt to just not serve French visitors or turn a blind eye if they opt to use a VPN to access the service.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:29PM (2 children)
Clearly the best answer to all this is to get a VPN.
Get a connection that won't hassle you to access stuff. Then you won't have to continuously verify your age, sign up for more accounts, or give your credit card to every site with boobies on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @07:07PM (1 child)
The IT security and police are going to be stumped, when soon pretty much all internet traffic is "originating" from some Zimbabwe, because of all these morons and their "firewalls".
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday July 12 2020, @07:48PM
Nah, they don't need to send their traffic through Zimbabwe. This is France we're talking about: Switzerland is literally adjacent to them. It's basically a free-for-all there.