The UK's digital regulator, Ofcom, has announced that all websites serving pornography or any content considered harmful, must verify users' ages before giving users access to their website. The new rules will come into force in July.
Ofcom refers to their age check as 'age assurance'. It said that companies must use highly-effective age assurance measures — including age verification, age estimation, or a combination of both — to prevent kids from looking at material that's not suitable for their age.
“For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services,” said Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s Chief Executive. “Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid. That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content. Today, this starts to change.”
Ofcom said that adults will also notice these age assurance measures when trying to access legal pornography. The UK has traditionally been a privacy-conscious country, rejecting ID cards about two decades ago, and has never revisited the topic. Ofcom said that the age assurance measures will respect people's privacy.
It's not just porn websites that will have to take action but also social media platforms, user-to-user platforms, and generative AI platforms. The latter three have to do an assessment by mid-April to figure out if they'll need to implement age checks.
Ofcom said that it will not hesitate to take action and launch investigations into services that fail to comply with the new rules. Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can fine companies, senior managers at offending companies can face criminal penalties, and website access can be blocked by Ofcom where a company repeatedly fails to comply.
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