UK ditches plan for online porn age verification
After being in talks for years about age verification in the UK for all pornographic websites, the government has now decided to scrap the whole idea altogether because they can’t figure out how to do it effectively.
For those living under a rock or in your little porn bubble, the ban would have required you to submit a form of ID such as a passport or driving licence in order to pass the government’s age verification checks and access porn sites. It was first scheduled to come into force on July 15th but was then delayed due to ‘important notification process not being undertaken’, whatever the hell that means.
Here’s how digital Secretary Nicky Morgan broke the news that the plan will no longer be going ahead:
The government has concluded that this objective of coherence will be best achieved through our wider online harms proposals and, as a consequence, will not be commencing Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 concerning age verification for online pornography.
The Digital Economy Act objectives will therefore be delivered through our proposed online harms regulatory regime. This course of action will give the regulator discretion on the most effective means for companies to meet their duty of care. The government’s commitment to protecting children online is unwavering.
Adult content is too easily accessed online and more needs to be done to protect children from harm. We want to deliver the most comprehensive approach to keeping children safe online and recognised in the Online Harms White Paper the role that technology can play in keeping all users, particularly children, safe.
We are committed to the UK becoming a world-leader in the development of online safety technology and to ensure companies of all sizes have access to, and adopt, innovative solutions to improve the safety of their users. This includes age verification tools and we expect them to continue to play a key role in protecting children online.
Did you make any sense of that? I’m sure she could have put her point across in a simpler way. It does appear like they plan to to use age verification tools in the future but under the new ‘Harm’ act. I just feel sorry for all the poor fuckers who set up age verification businesses just to have the whole idea thrown on the rubbish heap. I guess we just need to see what the future holds with it all.
