Loophole allows children to access social media porn

CHILDREN will be able to watch explicit X-rated sex videos on social media sites because of a loophole in a new porn crackdown, Britain’s chief censor has admitted. David Austin, the chief executive of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), has been charged by ministers with enforcing new laws that require porn viewers to prove they are over 18.

However, writing for telegraph.co. uk, Mr Austin admitted it would not be “a silver bullet” as online porn on sites such as Facebook and Youtube would escape the age restrictions.

“Social media companies will not be required to carry age-verification for pornographic content on their platforms,” he said, adding that it was a “matter for the Government to review this position”.

The London School of Economics revealed that children under 16 view most of their porn on social networking sites or in films and TV, and some 40 per cent of boys aged 14 to 17 admit regularly watching porn.

Prof Sonia Livingstone, who led the LSE research, said the crackdown was welcome but did not go far enough. “Children access porn in lots of different ways. This initiative will only stop one of them. So there’s more regulatory effort needed,” she said.

The Daily Telegraph is campaigning for a statutory duty of care on the social media companies that would require them to protect children from online sex and violence.

The culture department said it would protect children from “harmful content” under its proposed new statutory practice on social media firms but it has yet to reveal details. It will also face criticism next week over an expected delay in the introduction of the age verification for porn sites, which means that the crackdown is unlikely to be in place until the end of the year.

Privacy campaigners have been sceptical that the Government can rein in the estimated five million porn websites worldwide. Britain is the first country to attempt to introduce age verification for such sites and is being watched closely around the world.

The BBFC said it had met with all biggest porn sites such as Pornhub, Xhamster and Xvideos and, as a result, was confident of a “high level of compliance”, although Mr Austin admitted “determined, tech-savy teenagers may find ways around the controls”.

Compulsory ID cards to access porn sites will be issued at newsagents under the scheme. Harking back to days when porn was bought off the top shelf, newsagents will determine faceto-face if a customer is old enough.