France: Announced lawsuit aiming to block five pornography sites due to non-compliance with minor protection requirements

On 8 March 2022, the newly created French media regulator (Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (ARCOM)), initiated a public lawsuit against pornography websites Pornhub, Tukif, Xhamster, Xnxx, and Xvideos due to their non-compliance with the age verification requirement. On 13 December 2021, the Conseil Superieur de l`Audiovisuel (CSA), the previous French media regulator, had issued a formal notice to the five sites regarding the minor protection regulation. Since no changes occurred, ARCOM has initiated proceedings with the Paris Court of Justice with the goal of blocking access to the sites in France. The requirement was introduced in an amendment of the law against domestic violence to protect minors and obliges pornography sites to verify user age and restrict access to underage users.