All you need to know.
From April of this year, new laws are being introduced that will impact the habits of anyone that watches porn in the UK. As reported previously, compulsory age checks on all pornographic sites are set to be introduced with an age-verification request being the standard practice.
In a statement, Matt Hancock, the minister of state for digital and culture, said that these changes will be “fully in place” by April as part of the Digital Economy Act 2018. If a website does not comply with these new rules, Internet service providers will be forced to fine and block them.
This new system will be monitored by the British Board of Film Censorship, but websites will be required to implement their own age checks.
How will they do this?
Well, as reported by The Metro, “One system – AgeID, used by Pornhub and other sites owned by porn giant MindGeek – will prompt users to create an account, using a passport or mobile phone to confirm their age. The data is passed to a government-approved service to confirm that the user is aged 18+ – then users can then use their AgeID account to bypass checks.”
The change in policy does have its detractors.
Speaking with The Guardian, Jim Killock, the executive director of campaign body Open Rights Group, said: “Age verification could lead to porn companies building databases of the UK’s porn habits, which could be vulnerable to Ashley Madison-style hacks.The government has repeatedly refused to ensure that there is a legal duty for age verification providers to protect the privacy of web users. There is also nothing to ensure a free and fair market for age verification.”
Kilcock also expressed fears that MindGekik could monopolise and dominate the UK market. “They would then decide what privacy risks or profiling take place for the vast majority of UK citizens. Age verification risks failure as it attempts to fix a social problem with technology. In their recent manifestos, all three main political parties called for compulsory sex and relationship education in schools. Sex education would genuinely protect young people, as it would give them information and context.”
