France's National Assembly has pulled back from a proposal that would have made it a crime to pay streamers and custom-content creators for sexual acts performed on camera, according to XBIZ. The change came during debate on Article 25 of Bill 3106, a bill aimed at sexual and gender-based violence against women and children.
In its original form, Article 25 would have broadened France's definition of prostitution to include the online purchase of sexual acts. Under that draft, platforms that facilitate streaming and custom content would have been treated as "pimps," and users who tip streamers or commission customs as "johns," XBIZ reports. Enforcement could have reached fan and webcam platforms, their users and even creators who collaborate with one another, according to the outlet.
French criminal law punishes clients of prostitutes and anyone who profits financially from prostitution, but France's highest court has ruled that online services such as camming do not fall under the definition of prostitution, XBIZ says. A legal analysis by the firm Rous Avocat traces that to a May 18, 2022 ruling, which found no prostitution where there was no physical contact between the person filmed and the paying viewer.
Legislators debated Article 25 on Wednesday, sometimes heatedly, per XBIZ. Assembly member Sarah Legrain said the article would reach "acts carried out behind a camera," XBIZ reports. She drew a comparison: a strip-club customer can legally pay to attend a striptease in person, but "someone who requests footage of a striptease from a consenting individual, filmed at home" could be prosecuted, as could the landlord and the hosting platform.
Legislator Guillaume Kasbarian said it is not his place "to judge individuals' freedom to do what they want with their bodies, including videos, as long as they are free, adults, informed, and not under the control of a pimp," per XBIZ.
Supporters of the article argued that online platforms have become a gateway to physical prostitution and the exploitation of minors, according to XBIZ. Deputy Ségolène Amiot warned that the ban would push performers toward riskier work. "What will we tell these people who have made this choice? That they will have only one option left to earn a living: to physically meet clients on the street, in far less safe spaces, on more predatory platforms," she said, as quoted by XBIZ.
Amendments to delete Article 25 outright were defeated, XBIZ reports. The Assembly did pass an amendment narrowing its scope so it does not prevent consenting adults from sharing sexually explicit videos. Under the revised text, buying remote sexual services is criminalized only if the buyer knows the performer is a victim of online sexual exploitation, XBIZ says.
Rous Avocat's analysis, updated Oct. 7, describes a government amendment (No. 1274 rectifié) that replaces the pimping-style assimilation with a standalone offense of online sexual exploitation, and notes it was reported as adopted. The same analysis cautions that the bill is still under discussion and that none of its provisions is law yet. [VERIFY: final adopted text of Article 25 and the vote record on the Assemblée nationale dossier page.]
XBIZ also reports that a similar ban was enacted in Sweden last year. [VERIFY: Sweden claim; no second source confirms it.]