French Court Orders Block of 4 Adult Sites Over Age Verification

PARIS — The Paris Court of Appeal has ordered four adult sites blocked in France if they fail to comply with age verification requirements within 15 days.

According to a report, the sites, all of which are based outside the EU, are TuKif, xHamster, MrSexe and IciPorno.

The order states, “The best interests of the child should be a primary consideration that could justify infringing other rights such as freedom of expression or communication and that prioritizing the protection of the privacy of adult consumers, by excluding an age check, was incompatible with the right of minors to be protected from unlimited, anonymous and free access to content that is inappropriate for their age.”

If the sites do not comply within the specified 15-day window, blocking will remain in effect until they implement age verification rigorous enough to satisfy requirements, which specify instituting controls beyond simply asking users to declare that they are adults.

The court’s decision comes in the wake of French regulator ARCOM publishing its technical reference guide for the implementation of age verification.