The Government has announced the UK’s porn ban will come into effect in July 2019.
From 15th July, online users will be required to prove they are over eighteen years of age or risk being blocked from viewing pornographic content.
Commercial providers displaying adult content will have to put users through “robust age-verification checks” to ensure they are adults.
If pornographic websites fail to follow the new rules, they could be blocked for all UK users.
The government have said there will be a number of ways for people to prove their age which are more “rigorous” than ticking a box or entering their date of birth.
The Minister for Digital and Creative Industries has said of the ban: “Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online.
“The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we’ve taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safes place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this”.
Some digital rights campaigners have expressed their outrage towards the new policy.
Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group stated: “The government needs to compel companies to enforce privacy standards”.
He also added “Data leaks could be disastrous. And they will be the government’s own fault. The government needs to shape up and legislate for privacy before their own policy results in people being outed, careers destroyed or suicides being provoked”.