As much as 90% of pornographic content online features verbal, physical and sexual violence towards women, and a significant amount of violence shown is punishable under existing laws in France, a report by the government-nominated equality watchdog has found.

The report said: “The women are real, the sexual acts and the violence is real, the suffering is often perfectly visible and at the same time eroticised.”

A significant amount of content amounted to torture. 

Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, the head of the French equality watchdog, told France Inter radio there was “no reason in 2023 to tolerate these illegal acts of unbearable torture” which were being shown to minors. She called pornography “a school for sexual violence” which must stop.