The UK government has launched a public consultation over plans to implement age checks on porn sites.
The proposals follow a Conservative Party manifesto commitment that "all sites containing pornographic material" must check that users are over 18.
In this consultation, several people like the internet providers, charities, academics and others will be asked to contribute. A security expert said the plans would struggle to tackle porn on free sites.
The government proposes in the consultation document that, the checks should apply to content that would receive, if formally classified an 18 or R18 rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
The consultation document explains, “We are keen to hear from parents, schools, child protection experts, the pornography industry, internet service providers and online platforms that provide access to pornographic content.”
The government further intends to establish a new regulatory framework, as part of the plan, to enforce compliance with any rules that are made law.
"Just as we do offline, we want to make sure children are prevented from accessing pornographic content online which should only be viewed by adults," said Baroness Shields, the Internet Safety and Security Minister.
Peter Wanless, the chief executive of the NSPCC said the issue was "a matter of urgency" and that children who had ready access to adult content, could develop a "warped" view of sexual relationships.
Before the general election, Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said that, the appointed regulator can restrict the internet service providers to block sites that did not perform effective age checks and those who would not follow could be fined too.
The consultation document explains that the regulator of age checks on porn sites could be given powers to impose "sanctions" - including fines.
If porn sites were found to be persistently non-compliant, the companies offering services to pornographic content producers could be directed to withdraw those services.
This could involve directing payment firms to cease processing transactions for porn producers.
However, as most of the porn is freely available online, measures like these might not show much impact, a leading security researcher opined.
“My initial response to this release is that while the UK government may get some traction with payment processors, and that that could have some effect, it won't affect the free pornography,” said Dr Gilad Rosner, who is a member of the Cabinet Office Privacy and Consumer Advocacy Group.
Dr Rosner added that there are plenty of sites which do not charge anything and offer porn for free.
“I would wager that we won't see much in the way of tangible results for the next five years. This is a particularly challenging regulatory goal,” he said.
However, Pornhub a popular free porn site is ready to come forward to co-operate.
“Pornhub will comply fully with any robust legislative and relevant local measures that emerge from this consultation,” said a spokeswoman for the site.
“As members of the Digital Policy Alliance, we have already been working to carve out a technical solution which works for all. It is essential that all explicit adult content is covered, and non-compliant sites are quickly taken down.”
By Phani Ch
