Porn websites in the UK will be required to verify the age of their users under new internet safety laws.
This Online Safety Bill is expected to be rolled out in a few months and is designed to prevent users aged under 18 from viewing sexually explicit materials and everyone regardless of age from encountering harm online.
Adults could be asked to prove their age with credit card details or third party verification software in order to access pornographic sites.
Websites that do not follow the rules and implement the outlined age verification options could be blocked by media regulator Ofcom.
The move comes as campaigners have argued for decades that porn is harmful to young people as it promotes unhealthy views of sexuality, consent and intimacy.
On the plans, Digital Economy Minister Chris Philp said: “Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from seeing things no child should see.”
Andy Burrows from the NSPCC) added: “It’s right the government has listened to calls to fix one of the gaps in the Online Safety Bill and protect children from pornography wherever it’s hosted.
“Crucially, they have also acted on our concerns and closed the ‘Only Fans loophole’ that would have let some of the riskiest sites off the hook despite allowing children access to extremely damaging material but the legislation still falls short of giving children comprehensive protection from preventable abuse and harmful content and needs significant strengthening to match the government’s rhetoric and focus minds at the very top of tech companies on child safety.”
Other proposals under this new Online Safety Bill are a crackdown on scams and fraud and more prison sentences for serious internet offences.
There is also increased scrutiny on the use of end to end encryption.
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