Digital Minister Chris Philp has announced, on Safer Internet Day, that the Online Safety Bill will be significantly strengthened with a new legal duty requiring all websites that publish pornography to ensure their users are at least 18 years old. Age-verification technologies and third-party services are likely to be used to qualify a user for access.
The tightening of legislation comes as research finds that 61% of 11-13 year olds describe their first viewing of online pornography as mostly unintentional.
Chris Philp has said that “it is too easy for children to access pornography online. We are now strengthening the Online Safety Bill so that it applies to all porn sites to ensure we achieve our aim of making the internet a safer place for children.”
A new legal duty
The new 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 sites that allow user-generated content. Any pornography site accessible to people in the UK will be subject to the same strict enforcement measures.
The onus will be on the companies themselves to decide how to comply with the new legal duty. Ofcom may recommend the use of a growing range of age verification technologies available for companies to use that minimise the handling of users’ data. The bill does not go as far as to recommend a specific solution, in order to enable the continued development and use of more effective technology in the future.
Ofcom, the independent regulator, will be given powers to fine websites up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover, or block their UK accessibility, if they fail to comply with the legislation. Bosses of such sites could also be held criminally liable if they fail to cooperate with Ofcom.