UK porn block: Digital Economy Act to limit access to adult websites

[Wilhelm]

There is growing concern that a large number of Brits could be caught unawares when a new age verification scheme for watching pornography online comes into force later this year.

What is the Digital Economy Act?
The new bill, which passed into law last year with little fanfare, covers a wide range of issues governing media regulation and access to online content.

The law expands the remit of the communications regulator Ofcom; affects how public and commercial broadcasters can operate; and increases sentencing options for copyright infringements online, says Hollywood Reporter.

What about porn?
Its most controversial provisions, however, cover plans to regulate and restrict access to online pornography in the UK.

The bill give authorities the power to block any website it deems to be adult in nature. It effectively means all adult websites in the UK will be blocked by default, and only accessible via age verification, to prove a user is over 18.

First set out in the 2015 Conservative election manifesto, and pushed through under the radar by Theresa May’s government, the aim of the checks is to better police the internet and prevent children “stumbling” upon explicit content.

What does the new age-verification scheme entail?
Under the law, any site deemed to be adult in nature will require users to sign-up to an age-verification programme in order to login in and access the site’s content.

This involves handing over identifying information, such as passport or credit cards details.

This month saw the launch of AgeID, which has been developed by MindGeek, a company that also owns several of the internet’s most popular pornographic websites including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn.

According to The Independent, AgeID uses official documents such as driver's licences and passports to verify a person's age – “but submitting a mobile number tied to a contract phone could be another option”.

The person’s age will then be checked by a third-party company, with users then given a “secure login for all future access”.

Who will decide what is and isn’t porn?
Controversially, it is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the UK’s film regulator, which has been tasked with deciding what classifies as adult content.

The BBFC will also be responsible for ensuring adult websites have age verification checks and has the power to fine those that do not.

The BBFC has told The Guardian it would be required to check if websites contain the kind of pornographic content it would normally refuse to classify.

“In practice, that means that R18 – the BBFC’s most liberal classification, applied to pornographic works that can be shown in licensed cinemas or sold in licensed sex shops only, to adults only – will be the benchmark for what is acceptable”, says the paper.

When does it come in?
The scheme was meant to go live in April, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport this month quietly announced “age verification will be enforceable by the end of the year”.

In the past weeks “its delay has appeared inevitable with pornographers and regulators releasing almost no information about how exactly it will work”, reports Wired.

“The BBFC hasn't issued any guidance to pornographers on how age verification tools will have to work” says the tech magazine, “which has led to difficulties in creating any age verification systems”.

Three porn websites, ManyVids, xHamster, and BongaCams, which all feature in the UK's most visited websites, have been unable to confirm how they will implement age verification.

Speaking after government pushed back the roll-out, Myles Jackman, a lawyer for digital advocacy firm Open Rights Group, called the delay a “temporary victory for privacy and security to ensure pornography isn't the canary in the coal mine of free speech”.

Why has it proved so controversial?
While many may welcome this move as a way to safeguard those under the age of 18 from accessing adult content, “some argue that the tool could be wrongly used to breach the privacy of internet users” says the Independent.

Speaking to The Sun earlier this month, Jackman said that there are serious dangers associated with the scheme.

“The big risk is that the data from the user is not held securely, and that their privacy is violated when that data is hacked or breached” he said, adding that a breach is “ridiculously likely to happen”, and will affect huge swathes of the UK population.

Given recent revelations about how personal data from Facebook has been harvested by third-party firms, many opposed to the bill have said the risk of someone’s personal porn history being hacked and then used to blackmail individuals is enormous.

What about porn companies themselves?
There are also concerns the new scheme could give the world’s biggest porn publisher a monopoly and access to data similar to that of Facebook and Twitter.

The problem, say privacy groups, is that the BBFC draft guidance passes all responsibility for regulating the privacy and security of the services to the Information Commissioner’s Office, “with no specific security rules to be applied in the sector”, says The Guardian.

There is also no legal requirement for sites to offer users a choice of age verification services.

Critics of the scheme say this could allow MindGeek, which controls most of the world’s online porn traffic and has developed its own age verification service, to corner the market.

Jim Killock, the executive director of Open Rights Group, told the Guardian the draft guidance would make MindGeek the “Facebook of porn” with vast amounts of data on users’ viewing habits.

“These are the two key points,” Killock said. “There is no requirement for user choice and there is no requirement for any privacy to be higher than the General Data Protection Regulation. Basically, they are washing their hands and hoping the market will sort it out”.

Shouldn’t more people be aware of the upcoming changes?
Many industry insiders have said the lack of awareness or public debate about the imminent changes is also worrying.

A survey by AVSecure, an age verification software company, found 66% of UK adults were not aware of the new rules.

AVSecure CEO, Stuart Lawley, told the Sun: “The lack of knowledge amongst the general public about the pending age verification requirements for adult content should be alarming, especially to the Government.”

Alastair Graham, of AgeChecked, another age verification firm, told the BBC he was surprised that there had not been more public debate around the new rule, especially given “it will affect 20 to 34 million people in the UK”.

[AlphaKing]

thanks for the news