Locking the door on teens is fine. But there still can’t be any windows. Just as the government is sending a new version of its proposal to Brussels to ban social media for children under 15, Ifop set out to investigate the status ofthe “digital Great Wall”one year after the requirement to verify age when accessing pornographic websites—based on the SREN law (May 2024)—took effect in the summer of 2025, Arcom’s guidelines, its “double anonymity” policy, and its formal notices. The answer: not much. At least not for those it was supposed to protect.
When asked directly (3,000 adults and 500 minors aged 15 to 17), users describe a reality that official reports prefer to ignore: people aren’t complying with the age verification—they’re circumventing it. Far from curbing demand, the system has mainly shifted it, like water on a mattress: press down here, and it bulges there. The 15- to 17-year-olds, the primary target group, are also the first to abandon platforms that comply with the rules and head for those that do not. The bottom line: the law mainly filters out the “virtuous” sites, redraws the traffic map, and leaves the practice virtually untouched. This should give pause to those who dream of applying the same formula to social media.
KEY FIGURES
A) A BROAD CONSENSUS ON MANDATORY AGE VERIFICATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
1 – 86% of French people want Arcom to require social media platforms that host pornographic content (X, Reddit, TikTok, etc.) to implement an age verification system that blocks access to minors.
2 – 83% of French people want Arcom to ensure that all adult websites properly implement this age verification system.
3 – 81% of French people also support taking stronger action against adult websites that do not verify the age of their visitors, such as ordering internet service providers to block them, removing them from search engine results, or imposing criminal penalties on their executives.
B) AGE VERIFICATION WHEN ACCESSING ADULT WEBSITES REMAINS LARGELY UNIMPLEMENTED
4 – Barely half of French adults who attempted to access an adult website in the past 12 months were asked to verify their age, either through a photo or video of their face (55%) or by submitting a form of identification (50%).
5 – And among those who were asked to verify their age, only a minority agreed to do so: 39% of adults, and half as many (18%) among minors aged 15–17, completed the verification process.
6 – The bulk of consumption of this type of content therefore continues to take place outside the legal framework: more than two-thirds of adults (69%) and more than three-quarters of minors (78%) who have viewed this type of content in the past 12 months did so on sites that do not require age verification.
C) A VERY LIMITED IMPACT ON ONLINE CONSUMPTION OF ADULT CONTENT
7 – The measure’s objective—to prevent those under 18 from accessing this content—is far from being achieved, given the proportion of minors aged 15–17 who stopped viewing this type of content after encountering an age verification measure: 36%, compared to 16% of those over 18 years of age.
8 – Overall, the effective implementation of the age verification requirement in the summer of 2025 had only a limited impact on the use of adult content sites: only 16% of adults and 22% of minors aged 15–17 stopped visiting such sites; about one-third of them reduced their visits; and among the rest (52% of adults, 40% of minors), this requirement had no impact on their usage.
9 – The implementation of this age verification has led to a shift in traffic toward sites that do not comply with the law: 65% of minors aged 15–17 and 48% of adults have stopped visiting sites that require age verification in favor of sites that do not enforce it.
10 – Compared to 2023, the use of adult websites among 18- to 24-year-olds has not decreased, despite the implementation of age verification. In fact, 58% of 18- to 24-year-olds reported having visited a site to view pornographic videos or images in 2023, just as they did in 2026. And for sites like OnlyFans, there was even an increase (from 18% in 2023 to 26% in 2026), as well as for webcam sites (from 18% in 2023 to 22% in 2026).
D) PUBLIC OPINION IS VERY CRITICAL OF THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM BUT OVERWHELMINGLY IN FAVOR OF AGE VERIFICATION UPON ENTRY TO ADULT SITES
11 – 64% of French people consider Arcom’s actions insufficient with regard to adult websites that do not implement age verification.
12 – 64% of French people do not consider the current age verification system effective in actually preventing minors from accessing adult content.
13 – The principle of age verification for access to adult websites enjoys very broad public support, with 89% of respondents in favor.
