The announcement of the upcoming blocking of several pornographic sites in France, for lack of integration of an authentication system via the France Identity application, and the stopping of accessibility in France of different pornographic sites, had an immediate effect with a significant increase in research and subscriptions to VPNs. In a message on Twitter, the VPN Proton supplier announces an explosion in demand of more than 1000%, noting that the figure exceeds the request when Tiktok stops in the United States.
5pm – Pornhub Blocks France from Accessing Its Website
5.30pm – @Protonvpn Increase by 1,000% registration
For context, this is more than when tiktok block americans. pic.twitter.com/gvzynd5hps
– Proton VPN (@protonvpn) June 4, 2025
Online, forums and social networks are relayed by bypass tutorials. In the background, a market in full effervescence, boosted by regulation whose effects exceed the initial intentions.
An immediate response to the government announcement
At the end of April, the president of Arch, Roch-Olivier Maistre, confirmed that the authority was going to proceed to Blocking of pornographic sites which would refuse to set up certified age authentication. This decision, motivated by the protection of minors, initially targets several platforms with a strong audience, whose names have not been officially revealed but which is suspected of include Pornhub, XNXX or XVIDEOS.
From the hours that followed, Google queries combining “VPN” and “porn” have jumped In France, according to data from Google Trends. Several VPN suppliers, of which Proton brings in an increase in very high increase in requests. On the side of an actor like NordVPN, organic traffic since French search engines experienced an unusual peak during the week of April 29.
An opportunistic market … and foreigner
This revival of interest largely benefits a handful of international actors: NordVPN (Panama), Surfshark (Netherlands), ExpressVPN (British Virgin Islands), Protonvpn (Switzerland) or Cyberghost (Romania). All claim a policy of non-conservation of the logs, without this being able to be systematically verified. On the other hand, their marketing strategy is transparent, presence in sponsored results, affiliation via tech influencers or VPN comparators, “reinforced confidentiality” campaigns.
THE Global Personal VPN market would exceed tens of billions of dollars in 2025in all very strong increase since 2020. France, traditionally behind, seems to catch up with part of this delay under the combined effect of the generalization of telework and regulatory decisions targeting certain uses.
A regulation by one click
For users, the installation of a VPN allows Simulate a location outside Franceand therefore to escape the future obligation of authentication. This solution does not require any particular technical competence. “The objective is to protect minors, but we see that the first reflexes are to find ways to override. It is a fairly common paradox in digital regulation policies,” observes a specialist in regulation interviewed under the cover of anonymity.
This trend feeds a recurring criticism concerning the growing gap between the objectives of regulators and the real users of usersespecially the youngest, often better equipped to circumvent restrictions than to respect them.
An extended debate on privacy and digital life
Behind the subject of porn, it is a Wide question that is emerging, to what extent can public policies supervise digital uses without triggering massive avoidance strategies? By pushing users to tools such as VPNs, the State paradoxically contributes to strengthening the use of solutions originally designed for the confidentiality of journalists, activists or citizens of authoritarian countries.
Failure signal or transformation?
The rise of VPNs in France following the announcements of pornographic sites and Arcom illustrates a persistent tension, that of a national legal framework in the face of a fundamentally transnational digital infrastructure. The commercial success of certain suppliers may appear as a symptom of this friction between regulation, uses and digital economy.
It remains to be seen whether this dynamic will continue or if, on the contrary, it will mark an inflection point in the way in which the authorities approach technologies for the protection of privacy.
