UK porn block: Concerns grow over new rules forcing people to show ID to watch adult videos

'Age ID' system will see people forced to prove their identity and then log in to watch videos

(Getty/iStock)

Concern is growing about the introduction of new UK porn blocks that will force people to show identification in order watch adult videos.

The government has repeatedly committed to introducing new rules that will force anyone who attempts to look at pornographic content to prove they are adults.

That proof will largely mean showing identification documents to some sort of verification service. That in turn will mean anyone in the UK who wants to look at pornography will have to do so with a login, tied to their real name.

Numerous reports have suggested the blocks will be introduced from 1 April, though the government has repeatedly changed the date and said in November that they will be in place “by Easter”. As that possible introduction date approaches, activists and internet users have posted across social networks, sparking fear about the way they could be enacted.

One Twitter post, shared thousands of times, read: "I know there's a lot going on right now but it's weird nobody's talking about how the UK is blocking ALL PORN later this year. And how you'll need to upload your passport to a database of porn users to get around the block."

The blocks will require any website that shows pornography to people in the United Kingdom to check that they are over 18. Those checks will be extensive, requiring websites to enlist a verification service that will store data about everyone who uses pornography.

One of the most prominent of those verification services is AgeID, which is owned by Mindgeek, the same company that runs many of the world’s most popular pornography sites including Pornhub and YouPorn.

The AgeID system – which will be used on those sites as well as others – will mean that anyone who attempts to access a pornographic website from the UK once the blocks are in place will instead be referred to a non-pornographic page.

That page will ask them to register with an email address and password, and to verify their age using official documents. They will also be able to buy a special pass from newsagents and other shops, which will allow people to be registered without having their name attached.

That login will then be verified, meaning that people visiting the sites will be able to sign in and have their age verified.

It has also been suggested that the British Board of Film Classification – which gives age ratings to films, but will also be tasked with enforcing the new rules – could allow newsagents to sell “porn passes” that will allow people to access such content.

It is possible that the date of the blocks going into place will be delayed. It already has been substantially put off: they were supposed to go into place in April 2018, but the government quietly announced last year that they would be delayed, amid widespread confusion about how they will actually work.

In November, Margot James, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) minister for digital and creative industries, said that the new rules would be in place before 21 April.

“We can expect it be in force by Easter of next year,” Ms James told MPs on the Commons Science and Technology Committee. “It has taken longer than I would have liked, but I’d balance that with a confidence that we’ve got it right.”