Hello all,
We have an important announcement from AgeChecked. Please read the following statement and view the website link below. In particular
please read the extensive list of FAQs provided by the BBFC, the UK age verification regulator.
As you are no doubt aware, the UK Government passed a law in 2017 that will require age checks on adult content sites that are accessed from the UK. The Regulator, the BBFC, will oversee enforcement.
I’d like to update you on recent developments regarding the UK Regulator’s guidance on age verification and the date that the new law comes into effect.
The DCMS, the government ministry that is in effect the “boss” of the Regulator, has just submitted the draft guidelines of the Regulator to the UK Parliament for ratification.
The final guidelines are unlikely to change from the draft which has been submitted to Parliament. The process is more or less a debate to approve (or reject) the guidelines as they stand. I mention this as it is now possible to read the draft guidelines on the site
Age-verification under the Digital Economy Act 2017 which the Regulator has just published.
Frustratingly, there is no date timetabled by the UK Parliament for the ratification of the guidelines. However, the current best estimate is seven weeks from today. Once the guidelines have been ratified, the date at which the Regulator will start to enforce the law will be announced. At that point we will all finally have a clear deadline by which age verification should be put in place. It has been stated many times that this will be up to three months from the ratification, which will give us a date in Q1 2019.
AgeChecked will send out an update as soon as the guidelines and effective date are announced.
I hope this update has been helpful. Should you wish to have any more information about the UK timelines or AgeCheckeds Service, please feel free to contact me.
Quote:
I run an online pornography service. How do I know if my service is in scope?
- All online pornography services operating on a commercial basis, wherever they are based, are covered by the law. The government defines what ‘commercial basis’ means in the draft Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations. This includes websites which offer pornographic content for free, but which generate revenue through advertising or through 'premium' content which must be paid for.
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I run an online pornography service. Will age-verification harm my business?
- Adults only need to verify that they are over 18 and then they can continue to use your site. For more information about age-verification solutions, please see our section on age-verification certification.
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What about audio or text only pornographic content?
- All types of pornographic content are within the scope of the legislation. The legislation does not exclude audio or text from its definition of pornography. All providers of commercial online pornography to persons in the UK are required to comply with the age-verification requirement.
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I’m sure you have a lot of questions, rest assured myself and the AgeChecked team are here to help
.