this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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I know right? Aren't there nude beaches in the south of France where people will fuck in broad daylight with others watching?
French citizens please confirm (for uh, science, and not vacation planning)!
Yes, there are. But you misunderstood the news: France didn't block pornhub, pornhub blocked France as a protest against a new law.
Age verification in a porn database is odd to me, from a privacy point of view AND a massive undertaking for the porn company. And then there's the puritan culture of wanting to block teenagers from watching porn? Seems a very anti-French thing to me, but I'm also pretty ignorant of actual French culture. I assumed French culture would be like, once you have the urges, you'll go seeking, and if you need to look at the internet in the safety of your own bedroom, is better than unexpected pregnancies to satisfy urges.
What's the deal with all of this, anyway? What are the arguments here?
I'm not aware of the exact motivations of all the actors. What follows are my guesses.
My guess would be that
You might not be aware depending where you are from, but France is on a slippery slope towards Fascism, the far right is gaining more power every day, a lot of people think it is very plausible that a far right president is elected on the next election (2027), along with a parliament's majority.
"Protect delicate children's eyes from seeing nudity"
I think that's about it
Germany had this since forever, it's just how offline laws translate to the internet: There's a difference between a) ordinary nudity, b) eroticism and c) straight-up porn. The latter was always 18+, in video rental stores etc. they would have a separate section and if you didn't look of age you'd get ID'd.
You can't order alcohol online in Germany without a proper age check, and the same applies to porn. For paid offerings that's no issue, payment providers offer age checks (your bank knows how old you are and them vouching suffices), for free sites it's a no-go, noone is going to go through the hassle. Especially as you can escape off the German-language internet onto the international one and merely click through an "are you 18" banner.
Notably, pornhub isn't blocked in Germany -- neither from the German side, nor from pornhub's. Very occasionally DNS bans are ordered when a site without age checks tries to specifically target the German market. Mostly though it's down to German google not serving up those international porn sites which in the end is good enough for the youth protection authorities because the point is not to make access impossible, it's to make sure that youth not ready for content doesn't stumble across it. And once you're actively seeking, you're ready, the hoops you have to jump through are proof of the "active" part. YMMV on "not ready for porn with 18", back in the days there was still softcore. On free TV. Probably won't hurt kids to not start out with gonzo.
Passings laws we don't like?
NO PORN FOR YOU!!!
Isn’t protest coooooo you guys?