The UK government announced in April that it planned to introduce age-verification measures for accessing pornographic websites, but it appears the law will not come into effect.
Implementing these rules would require porn sites to carry out age checks on their users and be able to prove these checks using documents such as credit cards , copies of ID or passports. Otherwise, the sites would risk having their payment services for UK users withdrawn
However, according to the Ministry of Digital Policy, the age verification law (as originally passed) will not be implemented. Officials believe that a broader plan is needed to protect children. Furthermore, the law did not include social media platforms.
The Ministry believes that many more measures need to be taken to protect children, because until now adult content has been easily accessible on the internet.
A Ministry spokesman had stated: "What we want is for Britain to become a world leader in the development of online technology that will provide security to its users.".
The Open Rights Group, an organization that protects users' digital rights, said it welcomed the change in the government's plans, arguing that: "Age control for porn, as currently legislated , could cause huge problems for users' privacy. "
“We are happy that the government has moved away from the idea of violating privacy in this way.” This control could be exploited by hackers for various purposes (e.g. blackmail), since they could gain access to users’ personal information.
On the other hand, last month Australia announced that it was considering a plan to age-check both pornographic and gambling sites in order to protect children.
