Blocking of pornographic sites: justice offers mediation

Published on: 06/09/2022 – 20:53 Faced with repeated requests from Arcom concerning the immediate blocking of certain pornographic sites accused of not preventing their access to minors, the Paris court proposed mediation on Tuesday. The Paris court proposed, Tuesday, September 6, to organize a mediation to find a way to prevent minors from accessing pornography on the Internet, to the chagrin of Arcom, which asked telecom operators to immediately block of several sites. “The court considers that the present case includes eligibility criteria for mediation”, declared during a turbulent hearing its first vice-president Fabrice Vert, promoter of this method of conflict resolution. The decision to urge the parties to negotiate will be formally taken on Thursday, but the choice of economist Bruno Deffains as mediator has already been put forward.>> To see: When the porn empire falters “The regulator’s position is not not to lead workshops to help pornographic sites carry out their activity”, regretted the lawyers of Arcom (ex-CSA), the media regulator which was granted by the law of July 30, 2020 the power to request the blocking of a site pornographic if it finds that it is accessible by minors. The Cypriot company MG Freesites, publisher of the Pornhub platform, one of the five sites targeted in this procedure, has for its part filed a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) which calls into question the legitimacy of Arcom to act. The court will decide on October 4 whether or not to send this QPC to the Court of Cassation. If this was not the case, a new civil hearing would be organized to examine the case on the merits. A similar QPC was filed in a joint administrative procedure.”Drawing out the case””Are we imagining mediation between a dealer and a police officer?”, Was offended by AFP Thomas Rohmer, founder of Open, one of the child protection associations which had seized Arcom. According to him, the last-minute filing of a QPC shows “the sites’ desire to drag out the case , on the basis of arguments of bad faith”, he declared. During the debates, the lawyers representing Pornhub, Tukif, XHamster, Xvideos, Xnxx, targeted in December 2021 by a formal notice from Arcom and which are among the most visited sites in France, have tried to prove their goodwill. >> To read: Is the #MeToo movement winning the porn industry in France?” None of the technical solutions we have tested has not proved satisfactory”, pleaded Elsa Rodrigues, lawyer for MG Freesites (MindGeek group), adding Don’t wait for the “guidelines” announced in December by the regulator. “There is no consensus on technical measures. (…) No one tells us what to do,” she continued. Recent reports from the Cnil and Peren, the pole of government expertise, recalled the risks associated with the existing majority verification solutions proposed by the industry, while paving the way for a system based on trusted third parties. The government is also preparing, with the industry, telecoms and child protection associations a default parental control system on smartphones, which will be fixed by decree “within a few weeks or months”, said Monday the entourage of the Minister Delegate for Digital, Jean- Noël Barrot.With AFP