New embedded online sales platform. The High Commissioner for Children, Sarah El Haïry, will again contact the digital regulator after the broadcast of a France 2 report this Monday, November 17, showing that advertising on the sites Etsy and Leboncoin offers pornographic content under the guise of traditional sales. This announcement comes a day after a similar approach regarding second-hand sales site Vinted.
The report airs at 8 p.m. news on France 2 this Monday showed an advertisement on Leboncoin of a woman selling dresses on the front, but actually offering pornographic content, which must be paid directly on the platform. The journalists mentioned that, when contacted by them, the resale platform withdrew this advertisement.
On Etsy, an online sales site, they display ads offering images of naked girls generated by artificial intelligence, content that could be considered child pornography. The report also showed ads on Vinted led in several clicks ranging from clothing sales to offers of sexual content.
“Whether on Etsy, on Leboncoin, or elsewhere, platforms cannot turn a blind eye when advertising allows, without payment, access to pornographic content”underlined the Commissioner’s entourage. “As soon as there is a risk of contact between minors and pornography, vigilance must be taken immediately, the reaction must be total”added the same source.
From 2024, the law requires sites hosting pornography to verify the age of their users, with sanctions including blocking.
Site The Informed and other media outlets have revealed in recent days that ads seen on a notorious second-hand product sales platform linked to another messaging service, which its authors used to sell pornographic content. Meanwhile, Vinted assured that this was true “zero tolerance policy towards unsolicited sexual communications or promotion of sexual services” and take it “This situation is very serious”.
