The government have delayed their controversial “porn block” plans which were set to be rolled out this April.
Under the new government legislation, all pornographic websites will be blocked by internet service providers and users will only be able to access them after proving their age.
The plans aim to block pornographic material from being accessed by under 18s and will ask users to verify their age in order to access explicit material. As the government are not providing a platform for this, the porn websites themselves will have to decide on and create a system of recording and monitoring the age of its users.
On the delayed plans, the government said, “This work is a world-leading step forward to protect our children from adult content which is currently far too easy to access online. We are taking the time to get the implementation of this policy right and to ensure it is effective, and we will announce a commencement date shortly”.
Mindgeek, the owners of PornHub and YouPorn, have created AgeID, a site which users will be redirected to when they visit a porn website. The user will then be asked for an email address, a password and to verify their age using either a driving license, a passport or a credit card.
This has raised privacy concerns and has called into question issues of possible data misuse.
Kim Killock from the Open Rights Group said that the government “need to make sure people’s data doesn’t get leaked out. Because if it does it could be that people are outed, have their relationships break down, their careers could be damaged, even for looking at legal material”.
As we keep you updated on this story, click here to watch two porn stars discuss other changes in the industry and the decline in profits.