Powers to enforce age checks by porn sites a step closer

Ministers have taken a further step towards enforcing age verification for the use of online pornography in the UK from next spring.

Under new powers contained in the Digital Economy Act, which passed through Parliament earlier this year, a regulator will be able to block porn websites that fail to show that they are denying access to under-18s, for instance by demanding credit card details.

Digital economy minister Matt Hancock has now signed an order allowing the designation of the regulator, expected to be the British Board of Film Classification, to put the new protections into effect from April next year.

The move was welcomed by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which said watching online porn could be “deeply damaging” to young people. But the charity said that the new measures did not go far enough and there was a need for additional protection for under-18s on social media.

But the Open Rights Group warned that age verification could allow porn companies to build up databases of UK users’ porn habits, leaving them vulnerable to exposure by hackers.

The Act does not specify the means of proving age for access to adult content online. The regulator will be required to ensure that methods are “robust” and go beyond simply ticking a box or typing in a date of birth to say that the user is over-18. It is thought that initially credit card data will be used, but other meth- ods will be adopted as technology develops, possibly including links to the electoral register.

Adult sites based anywhere in the world will be required to show that they are verifying users’ age. Failure to do so could result in a bar on credit card payments from the UK or a block from being carried by UK internet service providers.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Robust age verification and regulation for online pornography are important first steps in keeping children safe online. But these steps do not go far enough. The NSPCC is calling for social networks to be required by law to give under-18s safe accounts with extra protections built in.”