Porn Sites Will Be Legally Required To Verify Age of UK Users

Porn websites will be legally required to verify the age of users in the United Kingdom under new internet safety laws. The BBC reports: The legislation, which is part of the draft Online Safety Bill, aims to give children better protection from explicit material. The measures, to ensure users are 18 or over, could see people asked to prove they own a credit card or confirm their age via a third-party service. Sites that fail to act could be fined up to 10% of their global turnover. The Online Safety Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament over the next few months and is designed to protect users from harmful content. Children's safety groups have long been calling for age verification on porn sites, over fears it is too easy for minors to access publicly available material online. Announcing the age verification 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." As well as being able to fine websites that do not follow the rules, the regulator Ofcom could block them from being accessible in the UK. The bosses of these websites could also be held criminally liable if they fail to cooperate with Ofcom. Previously, only commercial porn sites that allowed user-generated content were in the scope of the Online Safety Bill, but all commercial porn sites will now be covered. [...] It will be up to companies to decide how best to comply with the new rules, but Ofcom may recommend the use of certain age verification technologies. However, the government says firms should not process or store data that is irrelevant to the purpose of checking someone's age.

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