UK Plans Age Verification For Porn Sites In 2018

UK Plans Age Verification For Porn Sites In 2018

Villanelle​(staff) • Jul 18, 2017

From The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/porn-websites-age-verification-prove-users-18-fines-banned-uk-children-internet-a7844131.html

"Pornograhy websites are to be ordered to install age-verification software to ensure users are not under 18.

Sites face being banned in the UK if they fail to comply with tough new regulations set to be announced by the Government on Monday.

An estimated one million children access explicit websites each month, according to the NSPCC. The charity warns pornography can give children a warped view of relationships, increase "risky" behaviour, and create unrealistic expectations of body image and performance.

The Government also plans to appoint a regulator to police sex websites. The British Board of Film and Classification, which sets age limits for films, DVDs and computer games, is set to have its remit expanded to include enforcing age-verification on x-rated sites."

What do you think? Do you welcome this step as reasonable moderation of access to adult content or an attempt to increase government control of the internet?

SanE​(sub male) • Jul 19, 2017

I'm reminded of a friend who said something along the lines of 'First they get you for your porn, then for your alternative lifestyle, and then for your politics.' Seemed a bit of a stretch at the time, but now I'm thinking, 'Maybe he was onto something'.

While I don't know what the regulations will consist of, I'm somewhat skeptical about the efficacy of age-verification or other automated identity verification methods. The ones I know of can be easily bypassed without much effort. My gut feeling is that the policies will only hurt the legitimacy of businesses in the adult industry, while further eroding the rights of the citizenry.

Also I don't know from what number NSPCC extrapolated their one million a month figure. The real number might lower, it might be higher, but even if 'pornographic' websites are not factored in, one can easily stumble upon 'pornographic' material in mainstream websites like Instagram or Youtube. What will be the methodology to define a website as pornographic? For all the concerns the charity points out, I believe they can be tackled with a different set of policies that prepare children how to deal with their sexuality and the realities of relationships, rather than implementing a set of short-sighted regulations, that will be out-dated as soon as they are put in place.

Rod​(dom male) • Jul 20, 2017

How would this work?
Politicians have no idea when it comes to technology and any system put in place can be bypassed. What form would "proof" take anyway, photo ID, credit card? Any of these could be easily "borrowed" by a child and used to gain access.
Don't get me wrong, as a moderator on another kink site I am well aware of the problems of underage gaining access to this stuff but regulations simply can't work.
This is the same simple minded approach the UK and other countries are trying to take to message encryption as a response to terror attacks. They have no understanding of the technology and are applying old school, flawed logic to make it seem like they are doing something.
It will be yet another imposition of time and money onto websites and ISP's that will have exactly zero effect.

First line of defense is to ensure good adult supervision at home, combined with simple things like OpenDNS to manage access to sites.
For site staff the best response is what I expect happens here (and on most adult sites) that suspected underage users are identified by other users and reported to staff who can act to ban their accounts.

It is just another stunt to try and win cheap votes by politicians making it look like they are acting on something they can't control.
The genie is out of the bottle and has been ever since the Internet really took off.