European Op-ed : Age verification on pornographic sites: A major public health and child protection issue

Minors are massively exposed to pornographic content. Top of the search results for sex, free and accessible from the age of the first mobile phone, pornography is now the main source of ‘sex education’ for teenagers. In France, 51% of boys aged 11-12 regularly consume pornography^[1], and 65% at 16-17, with an average age of first exposure of around 10^[2]. This exposure is often involuntary^[3], sometimes forced. For boys, it is part of a virilistic socialisation ritual.^[4]

But contemporary pornography doesn’t just show ‘sex scenes’: it also depicts acts of extreme violence, misogynistic and racist insults, and scenes of torture, strangulation and child sexual abuse. A study of the 50 most-watched videos shows that 88% feature physical assaults and 48% sexist verbal assaults.^[5] The most frequently used keywords on the major platforms refer to illegal child sexual abuse, violent or racist practices.^[6] These acts, although criminally reprehensible, are presented as sources of sexual excitement. Women and girls are systematically portrayed as submissive, even consenting to their own destruction. The confusion between sexuality and violence, between freedom and male domination, is deeply entrenched.

Scientific studies are unanimous: pornography alters the perception of relations between the sexes. In Sweden, 70% of boys who consume pornography on a daily basis want to reproduce what they see.^[7] In the UK, one in two young women aged between 18 and 21 has been subjected to violent sexual acts.^[8] Boys who have been exposed are 3.3 times more likely to engage in violent sexual behaviour.^[9] Also in the UK, the Child Commissioner revealed in a study that 47% of boys believe that girls expect sex to involve physical aggression, and 42% believe that most girls enjoy acts of sexual aggression.^[10] A Spanish study shows that women who consume pornography are 4 times more likely to be victims of sexual violence themselves. A 2016 scientific meta-analysis also highlighted a correlation between pornography consumption and violence against women and girls, including sexual violence.^[11]

For children, the consequences are particularly serious. Pornographic messages are assimilated through enjoyment: the release of dopamine linked to masturbation leads to growing tolerance, prompting the search for ever more extreme images. Exposure to this content during adolescence, a key period in brain development, reinforces impulses and inhibits the functions of regulation and empathy. For researcher Maria Hernandez-Mora, this is a veritable ‘psychic rape’ inflicted on children.

Faced with this public health crisis, more and more countries are taking action to restrict minors’ access to pornographic websites: the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France. The French law of 2020 allows judges to block websites that do not check users’ age. Although this measure is minimal, it is the subject of intense lobbying by the pornographic industry, which is mobilising law firms, public relations and legal instruments to block its implementation. For years, the platforms have been multiplying their delaying tactics to block any regulation: systematic appeals to the courts, summary proceedings to suspend blocking orders, legal arguments based on the primacy of the country of origin to escape national rules, using the GDPR to disqualify age verification systems. In France alone, since 2020 (the date on which the French authorities put an end to their long period of inaction), the 5 main pornographic platforms have brought no fewer than 12 proceedings, taking refuge in and misusing the major principles of freedom of expression, trade and industry law and freedom of movement under EU law.

One of these proceedings led the Conseil d’Etat to refer three questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling. At the hearing on 24 March 2025, the associations Osez le Féminisme and Les Effronté.es, alongside France, argued that the ponographic platforms knowingly organise and profit from the violation of human rights (children, women, racialised people, etc.) and that their activity is manifestly contrary to European public policy and cannot therefore be protected by EU law. We eagerly await the CJEU’s decision, which could put a definitive end to the criminal activities of these platforms.

It is urgent to point out that the fundamental rights of children, the fight against sexual violence, respect for human dignity and public health are being massively jeopardised by this criminal industry, whose business model is based on illegality. Controlling access to pornographic content is an imperative for equality and public health.

List of signatories

Europe:

• Dr Esohe AGHATISE, President and Founder of Associazione IROKO ONLUS (Italy)

• Gertrud ÄSTROM, President of Women’s Baltic Peacebulding Initiative (Sweden)

• Graciela ATENCIO RODRIGUEZ, President of La Sur Association / Feminicidio.net (Spain)

• Iliana BALABANOVA, President of Bulgarian Women’s Lobby (Bulgaria)

• Paula BARROS, President of Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights (Portugal)

• Anna BORG, President of Malta Women’s Lobby (Malta)

• Maria Ludovica BOTTARELLI TRANQUILLI LEALI, Secretary General of Italian Coordination of the European Women’s Lobby (Italy)

• Françoise BRIÉ, President of Women Without Violence WWVIF (Europe)

• Dr Chiara CARPITA, President of Resistenza Femminista (Italy)

• María José CARRETERO GONZÁLEZ, Board Member of Comisión para la Investigación de Malos Tratos a Mujeres (Spain)

• Sabine CONSTABEL, President of SISTERS-für den Ausstieg aus der Prostitution! e.V. (Germany)

• Charlotte DUCOING, President of Isala (Belgium)

• Anna FISHER, Representative of Nordic Model Now! (United Kingdom)

• Corina FUKS, President of Liberata (Spain)

• Brigitte HOFMANN-MUZIK, Representative of Initiative StoppSexkauf (Austria)

• Sally JACKSON, Representative of FiLiA (United Kingdom)

• Borbála JUHÁSZ, Secretary of Hungarian Women’s Lobby (Hungary)

• Marie KALTENBACG, First Vice-President of Bundesverband Nordisches Modell e.V. (Germany)

• Zandra KANAKARIS, Secretary General of Fondation 1000 Opportunities (Sweden)

• Polona KOVAC, President of Society Klujc (Slovenia)

• Teresa NEVADO BUENO, Secretary General of Lobby Europeo de Mujeres en España – LEM España (Spain)

• Blessing OKOEDION, Founder of Weavers of Hope (Italy)

• Olga PERSSON, President of Unizon (Sweden)

• Eglé PUIDOKAITE, Communications Officer of Lithuanian Women’s Lobby (Lithuania)

• Dalia PUIDOKIENE, Director of Klaipeda Social and Psychological Support Center (Lithuania)

• Susanne RIEGLER, Representative of Verein Feministischer (Austria)

• Malin ROUX JOHANSSON, Director of RealStars (Sweden)

• Dr Jocelyne SCUTT, Representative of WWAFE – Women Worldwide Advancing Freedom and Equality (United Kingdom)

• Susannah SJÖBERG, Secretary General of Swedish Women’s Lobby (Sweden)

• Malgorzata TARASIEWICZ, President of Network of East-West Women, NEWW-Poland (Poland)

• Elise THOEN, Policy and Program Director of ChildX (Sweden)

• Amelia TIGANUS, President of FEMAB (Spain)

• Nikolina ZEC, Coordinator of Women’s Network Croatia (Croatia)

• Anna ZOBNINA, Director of the European Network of Migrant Women (Europe)

France:

• Alyssa AHRABARE, President of the Coordination française pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes

• Justine ATLAN, Executive Director of l’Association e-Enfance and of 3018 – Harcèlement et Violences numériques faites aux mineurs

• Marie-Noëlle BAS, President of Chiennes de Garde

• Hélène BIDARD, Deputy Mayor of Paris (PCF) in charge of equality between women and men, youth and popular education

• Danielle BOUSQUET, President of the FNCIDFF

• Claire CHARLÈS, Spokesperson of Les Effronté-es

• Laurence COHEN, Rapporteur of the Senate report “PORNO, l’enfer du décor”

• Monique DENTAL, President and Founder of the Réseau féministe “Ruptures”

• Catherine GOLDMANN, Project Manager at Fondation Scelles

• Nastasia HOLLENDER, President of Mouvement du Nid

• Myriam LEBKIRI, Confederal Secretary for Equality Issues at CGT – Confédération Générale du Travail

• Alejandra MARISCAL LOPEZ, Director of the association Point de Contact

• Florence MONTREYNAUD, Historian

• Emmanuel PIET, President of Collectif Féministe contre le viol

• Céline PIQUES, Rapporteur of the report “PORNOCRIMINALITÉ” by the Haut Conseil à l’Égalité, Spokesperson of Osez le Féminisme

• Françoise RITTER, President of l’Amicale du Nid

• Laurence ROSSIGNOL, Senator, Rapporteur of the Senate report “PORNO, l’enfer du décor”, President of l’Assemblée des Femmes

• Muriel SALMONA, Psychiatrist, President of the association Mémoire traumatique et victimologie

• Céline THIÉBAULT-MARTINEZ, Member of Parliament, Member of the Law Committee and of the Women’s Rights Delegation

• Marie-Christine VERGIAT, Former Member of the European Parliament