By sudouest.fr with AFP
From this Tuesday, December 28, five sites are ordered by the CSA to guarantee that its users are over 18 years old to be able to access them, on pain of being cut off.
The Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) has ordered five pornographic sites to cut off their access to minors by December 28. However, if identity verification solutions exist, they raise questions in terms of data protection.
What solutions are considered by the sites?
One option widely used by pornographic sites is the use of “third party verifiers”, companies specializing in identity verification. These service providers offer different systems for checking: scanning of identity documents, estimating the user’s age by taking a selfie or analyzing information posted on social networks.
To ensure anonymity, the personal data collected is generally not sent to servers, nor stored.
According to Grégory Dorcel, CEO of the Dorcel group, interviewed in the spring, the cost of these service providers “is negligible”. “Overall, from 500 euros per year, you can protect a site. After that, everything depends on the volumes processed, ”he explains.
The sites also use credit card verification. The webmaster of the Tukif site, one of those put on notice by the CSA with Pornhub, Xhamster, Xvideos and Xnxx, explained in an interview with Next INpact, using this solution in particular.
Blocking on court decision
Michel Combot, Managing Director of the French Telecoms Federation, recalls that it is above all up to the sites themselves “to find solutions”.
The Penal Code prohibits exposing minors to pornographic photos and videos and the law on domestic violence of July 30, 2020 specifies that the companies concerned cannot simply ask an Internet user if he or she is of legal age. Since the entry into force of this law, the CSA can take legal action, which can ask internet service providers to block offending sites.
“If the CSA asks the judges to block sites, we will do it”, explains Mr. Combot. “As we are already doing for a lot of illegal content”, like the sites promoting terrorism or offering pirated content.
Cnil warnings
For the National Commission for Data Protection (Cnil), the devices must comply with several principles such as limited and adequate use and retention of personal data.
In June, the CNIL also warned that the establishment of a verification system could not lead to a “general identification obligation”. The verification of the age of the Internet user should not make it possible to “collect identifying data”. Because such a practice would present “significant risks” for the users, “since their sexual orientation – real or supposed – could be deduced from the visualized contents”.
The regulator therefore says it prefers “the use of devices consisting in the provision of proof of the majority of age” based for example on a “trusted third party”.