David Lee/Alamy
The UK government’s plan to block underaged users from accessing online pornography has been delayed again.
The law, which was passed in 2017, will require users to verify their age using a driver’s licence or small refundable credit card payment. Slated to come into place in April, it was initially planned to roll out a year ago, and then pushed back to the end of 2018. After delays, MP Margot James said last November that the law would be enforced by Easter.
The government is still to confirm a new launch date, amid concerns about privacy and data collection.
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The regulation will apply when anyone in the UK visits a website that has the main aim of distributing pornography. The main age verification scheme so far appears to be by AgeID, a verification company set up by MindGeek, which owns many of the pornography industry’s major sites.
Critics of the legislation point out that the process will create a UK-wide database of pornography users, with the potential for targeting by hackers.
There is also uncertainty as to whether the restrictions will be able to prevent children from accessing pornography, as they don’t apply to social media platforms that contain pornographic content, such as Twitter.
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