A Paris appeals court has rejected requests to block the most popular adult tube sites in the country. Following months of statements and threats pressuring tube sites to implement undefined age verification schemes, French media censor ARCOM went to
court in March and April to demand that French ISPs block Pornhub, xHamster, xVideos, Cliphunter and Xnxx. Meanwhile 2 morality campaign groups are also pushing for ISP blocking via the courts, and their blocking requests add YouPorn, RedTube and
Tukif to the list. ARCOM had sent formal notices to tube site operators demanding they find a more robust solution than the simple declaration of age. The porn sites did not comply, seemingly because ARCOM had not defined what age
verification methods would be acceptable. French reports now reveal that the Council of State, an appeals court, issued a ruling rejecting the ARCOM blocking requests. The reasons for the rejection are not wholly clear so far but the most
plausible is that recourse to blocking should be the last resort rather than the first call. It seems that ARCOM should be doing more work to define what age verification measures the porn websites should be taking. | 
