While a bill "to secure the digital space" is to be examined in the coming days in the Senate, the High Council for Equality between Men and Women (HCE) calls for no one to be forgotten. In the first place, women and girls who "are the biggest victims of the pornographic system", insists the body which issued recommendations in a document published on Monday, aimed at "inspiring amendments to the government and Parliament".
"It can no longer be tolerated that in 2023, when women's rights constitute for the second time the great cause of the five-year term, the pornography industry thrives on hatred and violence against women, in general indifference and total impunity," observes the High Council.
Extending Pharos' skills
Faced with "slow and costly" legal proceedings, HCE members first propose to extend the competences of the Pharos platform. The latter, hitherto used to report terrorist or child pornography content, could thus act on those "presenting acts of torture and barbarism, inhuman and degrading treatment and rape", she said. In the same way, the High Council hopes that the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) can obtain new competences.
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To combat the slowness of certain procedures, Arcom could "be seized in order to also control the compliance of blocking refusals and order Pharos to remove, block, or dereite" content, he says. As for hosts and disseminators of illegal content (presenting acts of torture, barbarism, inhuman treatment, rape ...), the HCE proposes to increase the penalties against them: "up to 6% of turnover".
A right of withdrawal at any time and without justification
Another proposal put forward is to ensure "a right of effective removal of any content of a sexual nature by the person filmed or photographed", at any time, and without justification. The goal is to ensure that victims no longer suffer the "traumatic impact of a broadcast" and obtain a faster removal of the content in question. Finally, the High Council also proposes "that any image, representation of a minor or a person whose physical appearance is that of a minor of a pornographic nature be prohibited". And this, "regardless of the age of the person filmed".
The High Council for Equality recalls that it will publish a report on sexist and sexual violence in the pornographic industry at the beginning of next school year. And calls, until then, to take into account those they consider as "the great forgotten of this bill" on the digital space.