UK Announces Introduction of Online Pornography Age Checks in July

UK's government announced today that new age-verification checks will be put into place to prevent Internet users under the age of 18 to access and watch online pornography starting with July 15.

According to the new rules which are "backed by 88% of UK parents with children aged 7-17," adult content sites will have to check their visitors' age to make sure that they are 18 or over.

All sites that will fail to put in place appropriate age checking mechanisms to stop underage visitors from accessing online pornography will "face having payment services withdrawn or being blocked for UK users."

Minister for Digital Margot James said:

Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online. The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we’ve taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this.

As detailed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, "The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the new laws. They have confirmed that they will begin enforcement on 15 July, following an implementation period to allow websites time to comply with the new standards."

The BBFC will also be the one which will certify age-verification solutions which comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards using a voluntary certification scheme dubbed Age-verification Certificate (AVC).

As explained by the BBFC Chief Executive David Austin:

The introduction of age-verification to restrict access to commercial pornographic websites to adults is a ground breaking child protection measure. Age-verification will help prevent children from accessing pornographic content online and means the UK is leading the way in internet safety.
On entry into force, consumers will be able to identify that an age-verification provider has met rigorous security and data checks if they carry the BBFC’s new green ‘AV’ symbol.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport's press release also explains that unlike previously implemented age verification solutions, the age checks imposed by the new UK laws will not allow Internet users to just type their date of birth or tick a box.

Instead, the new UK age confirmation solutions will "range from the use of traditional ID documents online (for example, credit cards or passports) to mobile phones where the adult filters have been removed. Users can also use digital IDs or buy a card over the counter in a shop where the verification is face to face."

UK also wants to enact new online safety laws

The new age verification rules for accessing online adult content come after last week's release of the Online Harms White Paper which describes a law package designed to hold social media platforms liable for the harmful behavior spread with the help of their platforms.

As the white paper details, some of the harms to be tackled by UK's new online safety laws are "inciting violence and violent content, encouraging suicide, disinformation, cyber bullying and children accessing inappropriate material."

As previously reported by BleepingComputer, right now the Online Harms White Paper is under an open consultation status which enables the UK government to collect opinions from "organisations, companies and others with relevant views, insights or evidence" concerning the future online safety regulatory framework, a consultation which will end at 23:59, on July 1, 2019.

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