2023-05-27 10:30:00
CHILD PROTECTION – More and more minors are consulting pornographic sites. According to a study conducted by Médiamétrie for the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (ARCOM), there were 2.3 million in 2022 to visit these platforms each month, on which they spent an average of 7 minutes per day.
PornHub, already put on notice by this regulator to establish an age control for its visitors, is the site most visited by those under 18. Waiting for the “certificate of majority” announced for September 2023, the Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Jean-Noël Barrot, wishes to strengthen the powers of Arcom to protect minors.
The study identified 14,111 sites, including e-shops for adults, and was based on the 179 that have a “audience significative”. Pornographic content present on other sites such as social networks has not been taken into account.
Pornhub, the site most frequented by minors
It shows that in 2022, 36% of Internet users (all ages combined) visited an adult site at least once a month. This rate is “barely weaker” in adolescents, notes ARCOM. About 30% of under 18s visited this type of site at least once a month. This share has thus increased by 9 points in 5 years, between 2017 (19%) and 2022 (28%) to represent 2.3 million minors. A number up by 600,000 in 5 years. The same upward trend is detected in daily traffic, which rose from 4% (minors consulting an X site daily, editor’s note) in 2017 to 9% in 2022.
This study reveals also the time spent on these sites. Minors spend an average of 50 minutes per month and 7 minutes per day compared to 2 hours per month and 16 minutes per day for adults. 75% of these minors access these porn platforms with their smartphones. Men of all ages are 2.5 times more likely than women to visit adult sites. They access it from the age of 10 and spend 57 minutes per month there at age 12. Girls represent 31% of minors and spend an average of 49 minutes.
PornHub is the most visited site among adults and minors, 18% of whom access it. Moreover, ARCOM emphasizes a “soaring” 900,000 new underage visitors since 2017 to this site, whose intro sound for his videos is also trending on social media. xHamster, XVidéos, Chaturbate and Porndig.com complete this top 5 and capture 59% of the time spent by minors on adult sites.
Strengthen the power of ARCOM while waiting for the digital certificate
Figures which were already unveiled on May 9 by the Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Jean-Noël Barrot, passing through Europe1. “Every month, two million children are exposed to pornographic images. If you have a twelve-year-old child, there’s a one in three chance that he’s already been exposed to this type of imagery.”he said.
In February, Jean-Noël Barrot promised to “put an end to this scandal and uphold the law once and for all”. He had announced the establishment in September 2023 of a “digital certificate of majority“. A “solution technique” who should be able “enforce age limits that exist in our law, but are not sufficiently enforced online”he explained.
Pornographic sites, which currently content themselves with displaying a sworn statement on their home page, will be “really” obliged to control the age of their users. “They will have to comply with it under pain of seeing their distribution prohibited on national territory.he said.
But the situation is “urgent” according to the Minister Delegate, who in the meantime is considering other possibilities for “take away our children” porn sites, “greedy, heartless, irresponsible mercenaries who put traffic, profits, advertising revenue above the health of our children since early exposure to pornographic content has deleterious consequences on the emotional development of the child “.
The government wants to give the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (ARCOM) the power to order, without going through a judge, the blocking by operators and the delisting of pornographic sites that do not verify the age of their visitors to prevent minors from accessing their content.
This measure is part of law Project aiming to “securing and regulating the digital space”, tabled on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 in the Senate and referred to the Economic Affairs Committee. “I propose that we can go much faster by giving ARCOM, for example, the power to block in a few weeks, a month maximum, access to pornographic sites as long as they do not verify the age of users “, detailed Jean-Noël Barrot. “This blocking can be done without going through a judge. And the decision can be supplemented by delisting on search engines as well as a fine of up to 4% of turnover”he says.
The former CSA returns to the charge
Since October 2021, an implementing decree allows ARCOM to give formal notice to sites that do not comply with the law. The former CSA (Higher Audiovisual Council, editor’s note) is also able to ensure the reliability of the technical process “put in place” by the publisher of the pornographic content. In 2022, ARCOM, after several formal notices, took legal action to request the blocking of five pornographic sites, including PornHub, for not having prohibited access by minors. The trial in Paris resulted in mediation between the two parties.
The lawyers of these platforms explained that it was “very difficult to find a satisfactory solution for controlling the age of Internet users”. ARCOM returned to the charge in April 2023, announcing new bets formal notice and a new referral to the judge for the purpose of blocking sites.
Several age verification tools have already been proposed, such as the use of a bank card, but none have obtained CNIL approval. The latter, together with ARCOM, asked specialized companies to develop solutions allowing the majority of an Internet user to be confirmed without revealing their identity. “It will work a bit like the control requested by your bank when you make an online purchase, except that this certificate of majority will be anonymous”, had affirmed the Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Transition.
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