PARIS, Jan 10 — Pornographic websites must be able to verify users’ ages in France from Saturday, the result of a years-long battle between operators and authorities, with start-ups scenting an opportunity in the new arrangement.

Among the new requirements is to offer at least one "double blind” option for users to prove their age without revealing their identity.

This niche is being targeted by small firms selling the service to big platforms.

Adult content firms’ willingness to farm out the service is all the greater as penalties for refusing to comply with the new requirements can extend to sites being blocked in France.

Campaign groups have pushed for the change given the widespread use of porn sites by underage people in France, with digital regulator Arcom estimating their number at around 2.3 million.

French regulation "aims at the most problematic websites, meaning the best-known ones with the largest user base,” a source familiar with the case told AFP.

New market

Sites already offering verification using a credit card have a grace period until April 11 to put in place their "double blind” checks.

These entail the user uploading an identity document to one service, which then sends confirmation they are old enough to visit the site to the porn provider without revealing the user’s identity.

In France alone there are several start-ups offering the service.

Arcom’s regulation "has been a real boost” to the still-emerging sector, said Jacky Lamraoui, head of French startup IDxLab.

The firm’s "Anonymage” service is already being used by around 20 sites, all of them adult platforms.

Among them is French porn site Tukif, which turned to IDxLab and other verification providers after a court ordered it blocked in October.

"It’s a mostly good law, but the problem is the way it’s enforced,” said Tukif manager Jerome, who declined to give his last name.

He claimed Tukif was the only free French porn site currently verifying users’ ages.

Jerome complained that age verification was costing his site "one or two (euro) cents per visitor”.

He added that age verification was also turning some users away from centralised porn sites to less regulated social media platforms such as X or Reddit, which do not have to verify ages.

"Since November, less than five percent of users arriving at the verification system come out verified on the other side,” Jerome said.

"It’s killed traffic to our site”.

Simple workarounds

For the coming months, competitors from within the European Union enjoy an advantage, as the age check rules only apply to French and non-EU adult services.

Arcom is still putting in place procedures for notifying other governments that sites based in their countries are not fulfilling French law before blocking them altogether.

EU adult sites will however be expected to comply with the French law in the future.

Aylo, the parent company of major porn sites Pornhub and Brazzers with an office in Cyprus, told AFP in December that it was "aware of the new rule and... will always comply with the law”.

But it added that the French rules would likely prove "ineffective” and "dangerous” for users’ security and privacy.

Beyond diverting users to other platforms, France’s rules could add to the growing demand worldwide for virtual private network (VPN) services.

A VPN creates "a tunnel between the source and the destination” of internet traffic, said Ivan Rogisart, a cybersecurity specialist at cloud security provider Zscaler.

Using one can prevent intermediaries such as internet service providers (ISPs) from seeing the content of internet traffic, as well as allowing users to change their IP address, browsing as if they are in another location or country.

Worldwide, around 28 percent of internet users aged 16-64 were using a VPN in 2023, according to specialist analytics site DataReportal, while consultancy Global Market Insight expects the sector to grow to US$350 billion in 2032, up from US$25 billion in 2019 and US$45 billion in 2022.

VPN subscriptions and usage have especially surged in the US, where almost one-third of states attempt to control access to adult sites.

"It’s a real loophole” in such efforts, said IDxLab’s Lamraoui, predicting that "some traffic will turn to VPNs” in France as well. — AFP