Technical guidelines on age verification for the protection of persons under 18 from online pornography
Since March1, 1994, under the provisions of article 227-24 of the French penal code, introduced by law no. 92-684 of July 22, 1992, it has been forbidden to expose persons under 18 to pornographic content.
Article 23 of law no. 2020-936 of July 30, 2020, aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence, gave the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication (Arcom) the prerogative to issue a formal notice to a public communication service not abiding by this criminal obligation, and to submit a case before the court for blocking the site if it fails to comply. Over the past three years, Arcom has made every effort to exercise these new powers. It has served formal notice on thirteen sites and referred the situation of five of them to the courts.
Law no. 2024-449 of May 21, 2024 aimed at securing and regulating the digital space (known as the "SREN" law) abrogates this article 23, and makes provision for Arcom to have the power to administratively block online public communication services with editorial responsibility, and video-sharing platform services showing pornographic content (hereinafterreferred to as "targeted services showing pornographic content") which remain accessible to persons under 18 after having been served with formal notice to comply with article 227-24 of the French penal code. This power, exercised within the framework of a special procedure under the control of the administrative judge, complements the powers otherwise granted to the judicial judge in this area.
The SREN law also makes provision for Arcom to adopt a reference framework, after consultation with the French national data protection agency (CNIL), to determine the minimum technical requirements applicable to age verification schemes set up for access to targeted services showing pornographic content. On September 26, the French national data protection agency issued a favorable opinion on the standard.
Arcom adopted the present guidelines on Wednesday, October 9.
In the event of failure to abide by the requirements set out in the standard, the law also makes provision for Arcom to issue formal notice to services to comply, and then, if the breach persists, for the regulator to issue a financial sanction.
Technical guidelines on age verification for the protection of persons under 18 from online pornography
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