While proceedings are underway against certain ISPs and pornographic sites, child protection associations are driving the point home and attacking Twitter this time. The Arcom has been seized.
Tracking pornography is at the heart of the fight led by several child protection associations. Next INpact informs us this Monday, August 29, 2022 that several child protection associations, such as the French Council of Associations for the Rights of the Child (Cofrade) or the Observatory of Parenthood & Digital Education (Open) have seized the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) to request *“compliance by Twitter concerning the protection of minors in digital spaces”.
“Our associations have noted the presence on Twitter of a large number of pornographic images and videos, likely to be seen by childrenexplains the press release from Cofrade. However, article 227-24 of the Penal Code sanctions the fact of leaving such content available to underage Internet users. There are also zoophilic pornographic videos on this mainstream social network, and others featuring underage people or characters.. Indeed, and unlike Facebook, Instagram or YouTube which are very (too?) fussy about nudity issues, Twitter allows pornographic content on its platform even though it is accessible from the age of 13.
Cofrade also indicates that it has tried, in vain, to discuss with the French headquarters of Twitter its policy on the protection of children, which led it to seize Arcom. The authority has the power to put Twitter on notice to verify the age of its users, and eventually to seize the Paris Court of Justice to block access to the site, under the law against domestic violence of July 2020.
A new legislative weapon already used a few times by child protection associations. Several pornographic sites such as Pornhub, Pornhub, Xhamster, Xvideos, Xnxx, or YouPorn and Redtube have been put on notice by Arcom following reports. The first five, as well as the main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also have an appointment with the Paris Court of Justice on September 6th.