Corner shops to sell official ‘porn passes’
ADULTS who want to view pornographic websites will be able to buy a code at newsagents to prove they are over 18 when new age verification laws are introduced later this year.
A 16-digit code – or “porn pass” – will be one option available to the estimated 25million Britons who regularly visit adult websites and will be required to prove they are not under age.
The move, part of new legislation being drawn up, is an attempt by the Government to prevent children accessing obscene online material.
New rules were due to come into force last month, but the Government pushed back the date in an attempt to ensure any system introduced was workable. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the country’s film censor, conducted a public consultation about ways to enforce a proof of age process after it was appointed by ministers to enforce the new rules.
While visitors to pornographic sites will be able to show they are adults by using more traditional methods such as registering credit card details, a fully anonymous option would be to buy a proof of age card with a code at newsagents, a source at the BBFC said.
If introduced, the card would cost around £10 and could also be used to buy age-restricted products such as alcohol and knives.
A recent report showed that in a single month in 2015, a total of 1.4million children clicked on pornographic sites. Of those, half were aged six to 14.
Alec Muffett, an internet security ex- pert and a director of the Open Rights Group, fears adults opting for more traditional methods of proving their age could leave a digital trail.
“This legislation is a digital white elephant,” he said. “The kids will beat the technology, and adults could have their details hacked.
“Nobody is lined up to guarantee the trustworthiness of the companies which provide age verification and confirm someone’s age to a porn site.”
David Austin, the chief executive of the BBFC, said age verification was “simpler than people think”.
“People can expect to see a choice of age-verification options, typically from third-party providers, so there’s no need to share any personal data with a pornography website,” he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: “We are in the process of implementing some of the strictest data protection laws in the world. A wide variety of online age verification solutions exist, or are in development, and they will have to abide by these high standards. We expect data security to be a high priority in the BBFC’s guidance on age verification arrangements.”
The BBFC will not run the age verification systems, but will oversee the development of the systems that are created. It will also order internet service providers to block sites that fail to ask visitors to prove they are adults.
It will publish its guidance on age verification after its public consultation process. Parliament will be required to pass the new laws as part of its Digital Economy Bill.