French groups take action against ISPs on access to adult sites

Two French organisations committed to the protection of children have taken legal action against the country’s main ISPs to attempt to force them to block adult content sites that are seen to be too easily accessible by minors.

The organisations, e-Enfrance and La Voix de l’Enfant, have taken action against SFR, Orange, Bouygues Telecom, Free, Colt Technologies Services and Outre Mer Télécom, which serves France’s overseas territories, with an initial hearing set for this Thursday.

The two organisations claim that a number of adult sites such as PornHub, Redtube and YouPorn among others are failing to verify the age of users or, at best, simply asking them to check a box to verify their age.

French law forbids allowing minors access to pornographic material. However, ISPs say that they are unable to block such sites without a legal ruling to do so.