18+ age checks for porn websites

Porn sites will soon have to check that visitors are 18 or over, the Government has announced.

From April next year adult sites will be legally required to use age-verification tools. It’s all part of the Government’s plans to make the internet safer for children. Recent research showed that half of secondary-school children had viewed online porn.

Websites breaking the rules could be blocked by their internet provider. A regulatory body, widely expected to be the British Board of Film Classification, will enforce the new law. It already sets age limits for films, DVDS and computer games.

It’s thought that initially sites will check ages by forcing visitors to register with their credit cards, as gambling websites already do. Other methods may be implemented later, such as checking a user’s details against the electoral register.

The law, which is part of the Digital Economy Act, was welcomed by the NSPCC, but the charity said further measures were needed to protect under-18s on social media.

Digital Minister Matt Hancock said the new rule means that “while we can enjoy the freedom of the web, the UK will have the most robust internet child-protection measures of any country in the world”. However, free-speech campaigners warned that the law gives the Government too much power. Jerry Barnett, author of the book Porn Panic! said: “For the first time, the Government has the power to block websites, en masse, without court orders. This is a first in a democracy.”