All porn sites must 'robustly' verify UK user ages by July
 

All porn sites must 'robustly' verify UK user ages by July

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwye3qw7gv7o

All websites on which pornographic material can be found, including social media platforms, must introduce "robust" age-checking techniques such as demanding photo ID or running credit card checks for UK users by July.

The long-awaited guidance, issued by regulator Ofcom, has been made under the Online Safety Act (OSA), and is intended to prevent children from easily accessing pornography online.

Research indicates the average age at which young people first see explicit material online in the UK is 13 - with many being exposed to it much earlier.

"For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services", said Ofcom boss Melanie Dawes, adding: "today, this starts to change."

Ofcom confirmed to the BBC this meant user-to-user services such as social media platforms must implement "highly effective checks" - which in some cases might mean "preventing children from accessing the entire site".

However, some porn sites and privacy campaigners have warned the move will be counterproductive, saying introducing beefed-up age verification will only push people to "darker corners" of the internet.

'Readily available'

The media regulator estimates that approximately 14 million people watch online pornography in the UK.

But it is so readily available that campaign groups have raised concerns that children see it at a young age - with one in 10 children seeing it by age nine, according to a survey by the Children's Commissioner.

"As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services," said Dame Melanie.

The rules also require services which publish their own pornographic content - including with generative AI tools - to begin introducing age checks immediately.

Age verification platform Yoti called such technology "essential" for creating safe spaces online.

"It is important that age assurance is enforced across pornographic sites of all sizes, creating a level playing field, and providing age-appropriate access for adults," said chief regulatory and policy officer Julie Dawson.

However Aylo, parent company of the website Pornhub, told the BBC this sort of age verification was "ineffective, haphazard and dangerous".

It claimed pornography use changed significantly in US state Louisiana after similar age verification controls came into force, with its website's traffic dropping 80% in the state.

"These people did not stop looking for porn, they just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don't ask users to verify age," it claimed.

"In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children."

Firms get clarity
Ofcom has published what it calls a "non-exhaustive" list of technologies that may be used to verify ages, which includes:

Open banking

Photo ID matching

Facial age estimation

Mobile network operator age checks

Credit card checks

Digital identity services

Email-based age estimation

The rules specifically state that "self-declaration of age" is no longer considered a "highly effective" method of checking ages - and therefore is not acceptable.

It also states that pornographic content should not be accessible to users before they have completed an age check.

Other age verification firms have responded positively to the news.

"The regulator's long-awaited guidance on age assurance means adult content providers now have the clarity they need to get their houses in order and put in place robust and reliable methods to keep explicit material well away from underage users," said Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at Verifymy.

But privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch warned that many age-checking methods could be circumvented, and should not be seen as a panacea.

"Children must be protected online, but many technological age checking methods are ineffective and introduce additional risks to children and adults alike including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship," said boss Silkie Carlo.

"We must avoid anything like a digital ID system for the internet that would both eradicate privacy online and fail to keep children safe," she added.

What's different about this attempt to bring in mandatory age verification and the last one that failed?

Not saying this one wont go through, but I'm not sure what the difference is.

It's coordinated with other regions (france, some areas of the USA).
They are trying to gain momentum.

If google enters the game, it's a first steps to not be anonymous anymore on the internet.

Congrats to the winners 🎉🥳

How do free sites handle ages verification. Sites such as directory sites / blogs?

Also can I just block UK traffic and be done with this?

I remember when the UK was trying to introduce this a few years ago there were several companies pushing Wordpress plugins, including shilling them here. I think one of them actually sued the UK government when the age verification proposals collapsed as they had been given some sort of officially approved status from them to provide such a verification service.

This time, I don't see anything as regards solutions and Wordpress plugins. Perhaps because the age verification requirements will be even stricter (they are talking about AI facial recognition and such, aren't they?).

I think Offcom will be looking to come after the big tube sites, at least at first. They may just block smaller sites and affiliate blogs with little UK traffic.

However, if you are based in the UK, might be prudent to comply with these laws.

If you are outside the UK, you will just be buying time by simply blocking UK traffic, as the EU is making age verification mandatory in all member states, although last I read it might not come into effect for a couple of more years or so.

It looks like for the UK regulator, a user who pays for adult content with a credit card can be considered to have verified they are 18. Is this a reasonable interpretation?

They also want to implement this in Spain, in fact the idea is to give you 30 credits per month, and every time you enter a porn site, 1 credit will be consumed ��

It appears so. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safe...ildren-online/

I would like to know what they count as 'pornography'. Does this relate to just images, or text as well? Are relatively SFW sites exempt?

I can't see them forcing 'literotica' sites, or online sex toy stores like Lovehoney to implement these age verification methods.

I posted recently my experience with an 'uncensored' AI text generator. It turned a description of a hardcore shemale pickup video into a romantic dinner date and a short treatise on trans rights. I laughed and dismissed it as ridiculous, but perhaps it might be useful after all to comply with these regulations.

For WP blogs an alternative (however a not bulletproof) solution would be a plugin which blurs every image in case it detects a user from such a country where age check is mandatory.. So in that case won't lose any rankings in SE..

Are there any free/to scale solutions for small free sites/blogs?

There was a WP plugin last time before the rules were delayed, but I've not seen anything like that this time.

the easiest or most simplest way to stop child seeing porn, no phone or net until 16 or 18...

parental guide :2 cents:

There´s always access to porn, before the internet it was and still is magazines or video, dvds etc, most of us have seen this stuff since we were teens anyway...

Maybe the implication of age verification on literature & sex shops, could be the stop to this verification law.

We have .xxx for my official site, shouldn´t that be a good way, just .xxx sites for all adult products, while also reducing the cost of a .xxx to a normal reasonable fee.

I'm getting tired of hearing about these age verification laws that aren't well thought through at all.

So we got UK, France and countless US states introducing these shitty laws. Let's say even Google has to abide to these laws.

How would this even work in practice. Let's say a user types in some adult keywords, ends up in Google Images. User would need to verify their age to see the images.

User clicks on the images to end up on an affiliate site, again would perhaps need to verify their age?

User clicks on an affiliate link and ends up on the sponsor's site and for the third time needs to verify their age?

Now tell me what sane user will go through this to verify their age 3 times? I believe I already read Pornhub was having 80% less visits in some states with age verification laws. If this is enforced, I expect this to have catastrophic consequences on at least the short term.

If anything it's better if this was done at the device level instead of putting the burden at the webmasters.

Do you know a plugin that blurs images for visitors from (insert state/country here)?

I remember a few years ago when mandatory age verification was being mooted and there were always a few idiots here claiming that it would actually improve sales. They seem to have gone rather quiet these days.

No, but some WP plugin developers could jump on it quick :)

If everything was behind a paywall - the good stuff, nudity and hardcore etc - then YES money would flow back into Adult.

BUT - and this is a big juicy butt - at first there would be a huge drop-off. In time however sales would return and stronger than they are now. The question then becomes: who can stick around long to survive the dip and benefit from the uptick?

Bonus question: would the tubes survive?