Porn providers will need age verification methods to comply with Online Safety Bill

Digital minister Chris Philp said the new measures will come as part of the Online Safety Bill, which will “significantly strengthen” the legal duty for pornography providers to put robust checks in place to ensure their users are 18 years old or over.

The checks could be carried out using secure age verification technology to verify that they possess a credit card and are over 18 or by having a third-party service confirm their age against government data.

If sites fail to act, regulator Ofcom will have the power to fine them up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover or block their site in the UK, while bosses of such sites could be held criminally liable if they fail to co-operate.

Opponents of the move are concerned that it will lead to the creation of a list of porn users that could be used for blackmail purposes if leaked.

Speaking to the Guardian, Jim Killock, executive director of the UK’s Open Rights Group, said: “There is no indication that this proposal will protect people from tracking and profiling porn viewing. We have to assume the same basic mistakes about privacy and security may be about to be made again.”

Nevertheless, there are also concerns that the broad availability of porn is impacting the way young people understand healthy relationships, sex and consent.

Half of parents worry that online pornography is giving their kids an unrealistic view of sex and more than half of mothers fear it gives their kids a poor portrayal of women.

“It is too easy for children to access pornography online. Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from seeing things no child should see,” Philp said.

“We are now strengthening the Online Safety Bill so it applies to all porn sites to ensure we achieve our aim of making the internet a safer place for children.”

Many sites where children are likely to be exposed to pornography are already in scope of the draft Online Safety Bill, including the most popular pornography sites as well as social media, video-sharing platforms and search engines.

But as drafted, only commercial porn sites that allow user-generated content - such as videos uploaded by users - are in scope of the bill.

The new standalone provision ministers are adding to the proposed legislation will require providers who publish or place pornographic content on their services to prevent children from accessing that content. This will capture commercial providers of pornography as well as the sites that allow user-generated content.

The government had previously announced plans to introduce age gating for porn sites that would have been put in place in 2018, but this was later scrapped due to technical challenges and administrative errors. It has not detailed how it has overcome those hurdles for the new rules.

Yesterday, it emerged that the Online Safety Bill could also see social media executives such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg end up in jail if their social media platforms do not comply with the new rules.