You’ll soon have to show ID to watch porn online – here’s how porn age verification will work

More than two years since the plans first made headlines, and 12 months after they were due to come into force, we now know when porn ID checks are coming to the UK. 

From 15 July 2019, anyone trying to access porn from commercial providers will need to show a form of ID to prove they’re 18 or over. Any websites that fail to implement these rules will be heavily fined or even blocked for UK users.

Read on to learn more about what the age-verification measures mean for you. 

Porn age verification checks: What are they?

Porn ID checks, officially known as age-verification checks, were first unveiled in 2017 when the then minister of state for digital, Matt Hancock, launched the Digital Economy Act. 

READ NEXT: What is the Digital Economy Act?

This Act of Parliament was devised to address key issues around “electronic communications services” and looks to do the following:

• Overhaul the regulation of telecoms infrastructure
• Introduce a Universal Service Obligation which lets users request broadband speeds of at least 10Mbits/sec
• Require ISPs to compensate customers for poor service (this has already come into force under Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme)
• Increased penalties for nusiance calls
• Require ISPs to block all websites with adult content unless customers opt out 
• Introduce age-verification checks and enable an age-verification regulator to enforce these rules

It’s the latter that we’ll be going into more detail on. 

Under the plans, from 15 July 2019 websites that host pornography “on a commercial basis” in the UK will have to check their visitors are aged 18 or over. If users can’t, or refuse, to prove their age, they will blocked from accessing adult pictures and video.

Porn age verification: How will it work? 

When you attempt to access an adult site hosting pornographic content, you’ll be redirected to a landing page, free from explicit images. This page will ask you to prove your age to make sure you’re 18 or over. 

Unlike the current checks found on websites hosting content about alcohol, for example, in which you simply have to put in your date of birth, the porn age-verification checks will require a form of ID. The type of ID, and exactly how each check will work, will depend on the technology used. 

READ NEXT: Best VPN

The Digital Economy Act, and its dedicated regulator the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), do not specify which services should be used. Instead, it is up to the website itself to decide. We do know of a number of options these websites have, though. 

AgeID

One of the most well-known – and controversial – age-verification systems is called AgeID. Developed by MindGeek, the company which owns Pornhub and YouPorn, AgeID requires a user to verify their email address before asking them to choose which form of age verification they wish to use. They will then be required to enter credit card, passport or driving licence details to prove their age.

Yoti

A technology used by clubs and supermarkets, Yoti’s software scans a person’s face to “estimate” how old they are. This could be used in tandem with your laptop’s web cam or your phone’s camera to grant you access to adult sites. Alternatively, Yoti verifies ages using physical ID details being entered into a secure app. 

AgePass

This particular age-verification system was built by AVSecure – a company that specialises in age-verification software for gambling sites, retailers selling items such as firearms and knives, gaming and lottery sites. It was built with the Digital Economy Act in mind and uses the blockchain to store encrypted tokens that can confirm if a user is over 18 or not. 

Porn age verification: Which sites are affected?

 The Digital Economy Act describes pornographic material as any video or material that either has been issued an R18 (Restricted-18) certificate by the BBFC; any material if it is “reasonable to assume” it would be given an R18 certificate; or any material that has been produced “solely or principally for the purposes of sexual arousal”.

Only sites that “make pornographic material available on the internet to persons in the United Kingdom on a commercial basis” are governed by these measures, and only if this material is “not normally accessible by persons under the age of 18”. This includes dedicated porn sites that sell access to pornographic videos, subscriptions or similar. It also refers to websites that may offer some free videos but give options for you to pay for greater access. In summary, if a website makes money from hosting and sharing any form of pornographic material, it is potentially liable.

Websites that offer material free of charge, or those websites for which pornography is not their main purpose, are not affected. For example, if porn was shared on Facebook, you wouldn’t be required to prove your age to watch it. This is because social media sites and search engines are so-called “ancillary service providers”. Despite this, the BBFC can ask them to remove accounts where appropriate and necessary.

The regulator additionally has provisions to classify, and reclassify, sites periodically. 

Porn age verification: What will happen if a site fails to check my age?

The onus will be on the individual adult websites to check your age but these sites, as well as the third-party software providers, will be regulated by the BBFC.

Any sites found not to be adhering to the rules will be fined £250,000, or up to 5% of their turnover. In the most extreme cases, or for repeat offenders, advertisers will be pulled from the sites or the sites will be blocked in the UK completely.  

Porn age verification: How will porn ID checks affect my privacy? 

The privacy implications surrounding age verification online are likely the most controversial aspect of these plans. There are concerns, among many commentators and rights groups, that the act could lead to the creation of a database full of details of the UK’s porn-viewing habits.

Given the number of high-profile data leaks in recent years, most notably and relevant in this case, the names and addresses of people who had signed up to cheating website Ashley Madison, this personal information may be at risk.  

Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: “The government needs to compel companies to enforce privacy standards. The idea that they are ‘optional’ is dangerous and irresponsible. Having some age verification that is good and other systems that are bad is unfair and a scammer’s paradise.”

In response, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said age-verification software will “only be concerned with verifying age, not identity”. In addition to the requirement for all age-verification providers to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the BBFC has created a voluntary certification scheme, the Age-verification Certificate (AVC), designed to assess the data security standards of AV providers. 

Where an AV provider has achieved these standards, via an independent assessment, they’ll be given the BBFC’s new green ‘AV’ symbol. Details of these assessments will also be published on the BBFC’s age-verification website, so you can make sure you’re only using trusted providers. 

“Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online,” said Minister for Digital, Margot James. “The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we’ve taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this. 

The BBFC added: “The Digital Economy Act marks an important milestone in making the internet safer for children. It’s only common sense. Offline, we put age limits on access to pornography and things like alcohol and gambling. You wouldn’t let a young child go into a sex shop and look at pornography – you’d expect the shopkeeper to turn them away. The DEA enables us to offer the equivalent protection online.”