France is reckoning with the harms of online porn. But will anything change? | Marie Le Conte

A government-backed report is damning about the porn industry, painting it as inherently criminal. Sex workers, on the other hand, strongly disagree

Online pornography has become inescapable. Hundreds of millions of people watch it every month. The global industry makes vast amounts of money every year. Countries and governments constantly debate its practices, excesses and dangers, yet nothing meaningful ever happens. Can it be stopped or curtailed? Should it?

It is France's turn to agonise over adult content, how it's produced, what it leads to and whether it should be banned. The catalyst was a report launched by the High Council for Equality Between Women and Men (HCE), a government-nominated watchdog on gender equality.

Marie Le Conte is a French journalist living in London