UK Gov't To Allow Citizens To Head To Nearest Newsstand To Buy Porn... Licenses

The UK government's continuing efforts to save the country's children from the evils of internet porn are increasingly ridiculous. Filtering efforts applied by ISPs have managed to seal off access to plenty of non-porn sites while still remaining insanely easy to circumvent. The government -- with a straight face -- suggested there was nothing not normal about internet customers turning over personal information to ISPs in exchange for the permission to view porn. It's as if building a database of the nation's porn aficionados was the government's original intent.

Since nothing about this was working about the way the porn filter's architects (one of whom was arrested on child porn charges) imagined, the UK government decided the same non-functioning tech could be put to work filtering out "terrorist content." Bad ideas have repeatedly been supplanted by worse ones, and now it appears UK citizens may be able to opt out of ISP porn-related data harvesting by [squints at press report] buying a porn license from their local newsjobber.

High street newsagents are to sell so-called "porn passes" that will allow adults to visit over-18 websites anonymously.

The 16-digit cards will allow browsers to avoid giving personal details online when asked to prove their age.

Instead, they would show shopkeepers a passport or driving licence when buying the pass.

Trench coats are coming back! Somewhat of an ironic turn of events, given how much government effort was expended trying to limit the amount of public porn consumption by shutting down theaters and heavily regulating distribution of pornography. Instead of heading to porn shops in shady areas of town, porn consumers will be headed to newspaper kiosks to publicly announce their desire to consume porn in the privacy of their own homes.

I would imagine this will be regulated as well, with the government needing occasional access to porn license buyer lists to verify that newsagents are properly vetting porn license purchasers. Fortunately, the privacy-minded porn fan will now be providing personal info to someone other than their ISP. Unfortunately, they will be providing this to people in their neighborhood, possibly in front of their neighbors.

There is, however, a chance the purchase of a porn license may be treated as no different than a purchase of a pornographic publication: age verification only and no retention of records needed. Given the UK government's incessant push for a sanitized web, it seems unlikely this will be the case. Once you've gotten into the business of controlling access to legal content, the tendency is to continue expansion, rather than treat this as simply as a voluntary exchange between buyer and seller with only very limited government interest.