According to a Médiamétrie study commissioned by Arcom and published on Thursday, nearly a third of under-18s who use the internet consult at least one porn site in France each month. These data show the urgency of acting to better protect minors, underline several associations.
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2.3 million minors (30%) are exposed to pornographic images for more than 50 minutes on average each month, a proportion barely lower than among adults, 37% of whom consume this content, according to the Mediamétrie study produced in France in 2022 and commissioned by the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom). Above all, there are 600,000 more minors since the fall of 2017, when the measurement began to be carried out on three screens (computer, smartphone, digital tablet).
Three-quarters of under-18s use their phones exclusively for these consultations, compared to 55% of adults. For Arcom, charged by law with protecting minors from these images, ” we are really on a mass consultation of pornographic sites by minors, (…) which is done mainly on smartphones, that is to say out of the parental eye “. ” These miners are even younger than we thought “Warns Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, from Arcom. In fact, 21% of boys aged 10-11 watch porn sites every month. This figure rises to 51% for boys aged 12-13 and 31% for girls of the same age.
These ” scary numbers “show” the urgency to act “, reacted in a press release the High Council for equality between women and men, because porn content is “ the bed of a society that trivializes violence against women and contributes to the increase in sexist and sexual violence “. ” What are we waiting for to tackle this public health problem? “asked the association Osez le féminisme! “ We demand that the government finally enforce the law “, she added.
On May 10, the government precisely presented a bill aimed at “ secure and regulate ” Internet. This text notably entrusts Arcom with the power to block and delist porn sites that do not comply with the law.
>> To read also: Pornography: France wants to strengthen the powers of Arcom to protect minors
Set up age verification
If the sites are in principle required to reserve their access to adults only, in fact, most are content to ask Internet users to click on a box to certify that they are over 18 years old. Seized by associations, Arcom has given formal notice to 15 sites to establish a real age control, and has taken legal action to obtain the blocking of seven of them, including Pornhub. The Paris court is due to rule on this case on July 7.
During a hearing in April, the managers of the sites refused to set up an age verification, because they consider the law insufficiently clear on the expected technical modalities.
One of these solutions would consist in creating a so-called “double anonymity” verification system, by which the Internet user would give his identity to a “trusted third party”, explains Thomas Rohmer, founder of the Observatory of Parenthood and digital education (Open). This device would then unlock access to content without transmitting personal data to pornographic sites. ” This can be complex to implement, but in the meantime, let’s be pragmatic: we can require sites to ask for the user’s bank card suggests Thomas Rohmer.
This issue, he observed, is also the responsibility of parents, who must take a close interest in what their children are doing on the Internet, and help adolescents to “ deconstruct images » viewed.
As for younger children, who out of primary school “, they ” do not have the maturity to see these images, designed for adults “, underlines the psychologist Samuel Comblez, of the association e-Enfance which manages the 3018 helpline on violence and digital uses. ” Some sites show scatophilic, zoophilic images, promote incest, aggressive images vis-à-vis women. And all this is now accessible in three clicks “laments Samuel Comblez.
On line 3018, ” we have young people who call us to let us know that they have been disturbed “, and that ” are silent because it is to them hard to tell their parents that they went to see porn sites “says Thomas Rohmer.
>> To read also: Pornographic industry in France: a Senate report denounces “the hell of the decor”
