Porn sites will be legitimately required to verify users' age

 

Porn websites in the UK will be legitimately required to verify the age of their users under new internet safety laws.

         The legislation, which is part of the draft Online Safety Bill, intends to give children better protection from explicit material.

The measures, to ensure users are 18 or over, could see people asked to prove they own a credit card or confirm their age via a third-party service.

Sites that fail to act could be fined up to 10% of their global turnover.

      The Online Safety Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament over the next few months and is designed to protect users from harmful content.

Children's safety groups have long been calling for age verification on porn sites, over fears it is too easy for minors to access publically available material online.

Similar measures were proposed previously but dropped in 2019.

       

   Research show that half of 11 to 13-year-olds have seen pornography at some point.

Experts who work with children say it gives them unhealthy views of sex and consent, putting them at risk from predators and possibly stopping them reporting abuse.

Announcing the age verification plans, Digital Economy Minister Chris Philp said: "Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from seeing things no child should see."