This month, Arcom, the French regulator responsible for online porn, has announced the date platforms will need to introduce age checks. From 11th January 2025, adult operators and platforms with pornographic content will need to check the age of users, ensuring only adults can access the content.
There will be a three month transitional period, where temporary methods like bank card verification can be used as a preliminary age filter, but they must include strong authentication to ensure that the user is the cardholder.
After the transitional period ends on 11 April 2025, adult site operators will need to have taken the following steps:
- Age checks must be effective, privacy-preserving and data minimising.
- Users should be able to choose from at least one ‘double blind’ age check approach. This means the platform should not know who is being age verified, and the age verification provider should not know which platform a verification is for.
- The age verification providers must be legally and technically independent of any online platforms hosting or providing porn content. Adults operators should also not have any access to the data used to check a user’s age.
- Age verification systems must not allow the sharing of proof of age with other people, and must be robust against the risks of attacks, such as deepfakes.
- Any facial age estimation must be free from material bias.
There are a number of effective age solutions that platforms can offer their users:
- Reusable digital ID app, that lets users anonymously share an ‘over 18’ proof of age credential.
- Identity document, which must be checked for its authenticity and to make sure it belongs to the rightful owner.
- Facial age estimation, used with a suitable age threshold to ensure no underage access.
- Age tokens, that allow users to share their age across different websites without completing a new age check every time. Age tokens can be used across different websites but Arcom has said they must expire within one hour, when the user closes their browser, or when their device goes into sleep mode.
In recent years, there have been legal challenges which have thwarted the French Government’s desire to introduce age checks to protect minors. However, the law transposing the Digital Services Act into French law also gave Arcom the power to block sites after two weeks’ notice, without requiring a court ruling. It now has the power to mandate Internet Service Providers to block non-compliant sites nationwide, across a market of 70 million consumers.
On 17 October, French courts ordered the blocking of five major adult sites for not having sufficient age verification measures in place. With the publication of the referential and the recent court ruling, France has become the first prominent country to actively enforce age assurance measures for viewers of adult content.
Our privacy-preserving age solutions can help you to meet Arcom’s requirements. Get in touch for more information.
