Between midnight and 3 a.m. France time, the French version of Microsoft Corp.’s MSN network provides a gateway to pornography on the Internet. Under the headline “Hot Nights on MSN,” the site features a close-up picture of a woman’s bare breasts, flanked by links to sites that hawk erotic paraphernalia and X-rated videos, live online strip teases, gay and lesbian sex and other explicit material. “We’re trying not to put our heads in the sand and ignore an entire swath of demand on the Internet,” says Sandrine Murcia, marketing manager of MSN France. “The demand for this type of content is there and we’ve chosen to address it.”

But back home in the U.S., Internet portals like MSN shun pornography, no matter the time of day. Yahoo briefly ventured into adult content in the U.S. last April by expanding its online store to include X-rated videos. The move sparked large, vocal protests and within days, Yahoo removed the products and all but did away with adult-related advertising. In Europe, where erotic fare is so commonplace that it regularly runs late at night on many mainstream TV channels, there hasn’t been any such backlash.