Credits: Kwameghana (Bright Kwame Ayisi) / Wikimedia Commons — CC0.
In a teen’s bedroom in the Yvelines, Adrien, 16, tries to access PornHub. Nothing. Black screen. A message: “Verify your age via FranceConnect+.” At the same time, an Orange technician applies an Arcom injunction by blocking the IP address of XVideos. From YouPorn to Jacquie et Michel, the same scenario plays out again and again. This filtering is part of a digital crusade led by the state in the name of protecting minors. But in the background, a new form of algorithmic surveillance is taking shape.
Protecting Minors… or Filtering Adults?
Since the July 2020 law, strengthened by the recent SREN law (Securing and Regulating the Digital Space, 2024), pornographic platforms must put in place a strict age-verification system. Arcom now has the power to block a site like Brazzers or BangBros without a court ruling. Officially, this is about preventing access for the 2.3 million minors who view this content every month.
For Senator Marie Mercier (Les Républicains), “every barrier is progress.” But behind that rhetoric, the debate over fundamental digital freedoms is brushed aside. Does blocking access to OnlyFans, for example, protect or censor?
Kids Outsmart the System
The filtering system relies on IP blocking, DNS filtering, and de-indexing. On the surface, it is discouraging. In reality, it is easily bypassed. All it takes is a free VPN like ProtonVPN, Windscribe, or TunnelBear and the trick is done. In just a few clicks, the user connects through a foreign IP address and once again accesses Abella Danger, Manuel Ferrara, or Angela White without a hitch.
Ironic as it may seem, this educational filtering introduces teens to digital anonymization tools. On June 4, 2025, the day RedTube was broadly blocked, James Deen and Mia Malkova were still accessible to those who had planned ahead. And Google saw a surge in searches for: “free VPN.”
The Veneer of Double Anonymity
The Arcom recommends a “double anonymity” system, using an independent third-party age verifier. This still-experimental model is drawing criticism. La Quadrature du Net sees it as a technological turn toward digital moral credit, a soft but omnipresent form of surveillance.
For Antonio Casilli, a sociologist of the digital world, the system foreshadows a society of behavioral scoring. Tomorrow, the state may know that you watched Lana Rhoades on a Wednesday at 9:47 p.m., and that you paused the video at 10:13 p.m. Cross-referenced with FranceConnect+, these metadata open the door to automated moral profiling.
A Fuzzy and Unstable Digital Morality
But who decides what is “good” to watch? The legal ambiguity around blocking criteria raises problems. The Republican state? Religious groups? Feminist lobbies? For Annick Billon, co-rapporteur of a Senate report on the X industry, “the platforms’ impunity must end.” Yet X (formerly Twitter) still streams pornographic videos without age verification, with millions of views.
On the feminist side, the split is real. Some want to weaken capitalist porn, a vehicle for male domination. Others, like Pauline Arrighi, denounce disguised patriarchal prudishness, a desire to infantilize citizens instead of relying on sex education and consent.
Adolescence, Screens, and Freedom
Blocking X-rated sites reveals a deeper tension: who controls digital space? Pink Minitel has given way to a digital jungle. Jordi El Niño Polla is no longer just an X star; he is also a gateway to a debate about individual freedom. By filtering, the state claims to educate. But don’t we learn better through exposure than through censorship?
The paradox is harsh: 15-year-olds get around state filtering. Meanwhile, the average internet user is subject to increasingly rigid oversight. The digital space, supposedly a place of emancipation, becomes a stage for an ideological battle. Everyone—state, parents, activists, industries—tries to impose its own standard.
Toward a French Social Credit System?
What is at stake here goes beyond mere access to Ava Addams or Danny D. The foundations of digital citizenship are on the line. Tomorrow, FranceConnect+ could become a single digital passport, linked to your purchases, your medical appointments… or your adult-content consumption habits.
How far will this go? Toward a digital good-conduct score that conditions access to public services? Toward an automatic account suspension after excessive use of sites labeled “erotic”? Protecting minors is a major issue. But it should not justify social engineering without safeguards.
Between Censorship and Emancipation, a Fragile Line
Can we educate without censoring? Protect without infantilizing? Blocking pornographic sites is not just a technical measure; it is a political act with systemic consequences. It raises a dizzying question: how far are we willing to go to protect our children… without giving up our freedom as adults?