Regulation of Sexually Explicit Videotex Services in France

Abstract

In the mid 1980s, concern arose over the rise of sexually explicit services on the French videotex system. In examining the legal implications of these messageries roses, this article reviews how French courts applied criminal law to penalize providers of allegedly pornographic message services. Although the Tribunal correctionnel de Paris relied on statutory law to resolve the Néron case, it refused to extend existing print and audiovisual media laws to cover videotex, based on a judicial precedent against the applicability of press legislation to broadcasting. In July 1991, the Court of Appeals of Amiens condemned three messagerie rose managers as accomplices of users who had produced pornographic announcements because they had intentionally permitted these actions to occur by providing users the means to publicize messages encouraging debauchery.