It seems that the Tory governments misguided scheme to bring in age verification has run into some problems and has had to be postponed. Thanks to the hard work and lobbying of some of those in the industry the government has been made aware that this terrible and un-necessary piece of legislation would not work.
Thanks have to go in no small measure to Pandora Blake for the work she has done to make people and our poorly led government aware of the pitfalls of their decision to put the wrong people in charge of their information gathering censorship policy. They wanted to stop you from looking at porn. It’s as simple as that. On the back of the legislation they wanted to make way for one of the more questionable internet giants to gather all your personal details and do with them as they wished. There were no security checks in place, no due diligence was ever done and worst of all, no one was consulted.
Make no mistake though, the battle may have been won but knowing the track record of our government and their desire to control the internet and gather information any way they can, this will be revisited. I have been amazed at the complacency of some of those in the industry who would just sit back and have let this happen. Through these pages and on our twitter feed we asked for people to help, simple things like spread the links to the information and to those places where the fight was going on but no, it was just too much hard work for some. We had the same feedback from other activists as well. What does it take to make some people take some time out and look at what’s going on around them and to do something about the wrongs being done in their name?
It’s of no thanks to the industry in general that this happy situation of a postponement has been arrived at, it’s down to a very small number and lets all be thankful that there are people out there who will fight for the good of others.
The UK government has confirmed that a controversial compulsory age verification check for online porn visitors will no longer be introduced in April as planned.
In a statement, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it would now start “later in the year”.
“We need to take the time to make sure we get it right,” added a spokesman.
The regulator, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), has yet to explain how the process will work.
“This is a chance for the government to rethink the absence of safeguards for privacy and security, but it is frightening to consider that this policy was two weeks away from launch before it was pulled,” said the Open Rights Group’s legal director, Myles Jackman.
“[The government] needs to introduce powers to safeguard privacy immediately before this scheme causes real damage.”
Child protection
Several companies developing age verification tools for the new regulation had previously told the BBC they thought it was unlikely that the deadline would be met.
The new rule means online pornography viewers will have to prove that they are over the age of 18 to watch explicit material on porn sites.
It is part of the Digital Economy Act and is designed to prevent children “stumbling” upon explicit content.
Possible methods include credit card checks and passport authentication.
“The regulations still have to go out for consultation, and be discussed and approved by Parliament,” said James Clark, from AgeID, an age verification platform developed by MindGeek, which owns some of the world’s leading pornography sites.
“There are set timings for such processes, so the maths just don’t seem to add up for it to be ready by April.”
Another company – which asked to remain anonymous – said it was unlikely that anything would be ready before the Parliament’s summer recess, which begins on 20 July.
The BBFC told the BBC that it was aiming to share details about the verification process in about a month’s time.
Last July, Digital Minister Matt Hancock set an April 2018 deadline for the introduction of an age verification scheme.
Several software developers are working on tools to help the adult industry meet the requirement.
“We are all working a little bit in the dark and making our best educated guesses as to what will and won’t be acceptable,” said Warren Russell, from W2Global.
W2Global is building a tool called AVYourself, and already provides services to the financial services and gambling sectors.
“The real difficulty for providers is that the regulators have not yet released guidelines,” Mr Russell added.
