‘End this scandal’
While children are banned from accessing porn in France, current laws only oblige people to click on a button indicating they are over 18, with no other checks on whether they are actually adults.
The lack of other oversight is a major factor behind children accessing online pornography for the first time at an average age of 11, according to French studies.
“I mean to end this scandal. I intend to have this law respected once and for all,” Barrot told Le Parisien.
He said pornography sites “will have to comply with it or risk seeing distribution prohibited nationwide”, adding: “2023 will see the end of access to pornographic sites for our children.”
The new age verification system, he said, “will work a bit like the verification requested by your bank when you make an online purchase”.
According to Le Parisien, telecom operators may be asked to validate that a user is an adult - apparently by sending a verification to a mobile device whose number is linked to an individual.
“France will become the first country in the world to offer a solution like this,” he said.
Leading websites YouPorn, PornHub and RedTube have so far declined to comment.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is married to former school teacher Brigitte Macron, promised to make protecting children from pornography a priority during his re-election campaign last year.
In November, he launched the Children Online Protection Laboratory, which aims to bring together industry giants and researchers to look for ways to protect minors online.
Online Safety Bill rebellion
France was shocked by an explosive senatorial report in September last year entitled Hell Behind the Scenes, which concluded that there was “massive, ordinary and toxic” viewing of pornography by children.
While France may become the first country to introduce such a policy nationwide, web users in the American state of Louisiana have had to upload digital identification proving they are 18 or older to access a site that contains at least 33 per cent adult content since January 1.
In the UK, 43 Tory MPs have written to Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan demanding amendments to the Online Safety Bill to introduce strict age checks on social media and pornography sites within six months.
Any companies that fail to introduce age verification using identity documents, such as passports or driver’s licences, would face fines worth up to 10 per cent of their global turnover and could have their services blocked in the UK.
It was the second major Tory backbench rebellion over the Bill, after more than 40 Conservative MPs successfully forced the government to climb down and make social media bosses face jail for persistent breaches of their firms’ duty to protect children from online harm.
