Porn sites must take a “continuous approach” to age verification checks to prevent children from finding ways around the measures, a leading children’s charity has warned.
Barnardo’s said children are “too easily” able to access extreme content, including rape, incest, domestic abuse and child sexual abuse while online – something they hope new measures implementing age gates on porn sites will help prevent.
But speaking to The Independent, they cautioned sites must take an evolving approach to the new legislation rather than “remaining stuck on the solutions that are easy to implement now”.
From Friday, anyone accessing adult content sites such as Pornhub must verify that they are over the age of 18. This can be done through various methods, including providing bank details, ID checks, or dedicated online age verification services. Sites that fail to comply could face heavy fines through Ofcom, in what the regulator has called a bid to stop an “age-blind” internet.
Becky Rice, senior policy adviser at the charity, said they “welcomed” the new legislation but called on Ofcom and porn providers to monitor any “unintended consequences” of the measures.
“At Barnardo's, we see the harm that normalising pornography can cause children, distorting their attitudes towards healthy relationships, sex and consent,” she said. “Barnardo’s has long called for the introduction of highly effective age assurance measures to limit the harmful content children have access to online, and we welcome these measures as part of implementing the Online Safety Act.”
She added that the charity has supported children as young as seven who have accessed pornography sites. Recent data from Dignify shows the youngest reported age for first seeing online pornography was just three years old.
“The online world creates many fantastic opportunities for children to learn and connect – but for far too long, it has been too easy for them to stumble across extreme pornographic content.
“The material children are seeing online includes rape, incest, domestic abuse and child sexual abuse. We see first-hand that watching this content harms children’s mental health and can normalise aggressive and harmful sexual activity.”
She said the charity had also supported children whose own abuse had been “normalised” by content they found online, including a 15-year-old girl who had been abused by an older relative for years.
“She turned to pornography to try and understand her own sexual abuse, but the content she found depicted older relatives having sex with young girls and the girls enjoying it,” Ms Rice explained. “It wasn’t until she disclosed her abuse that she realised that it was not normal.”
However, the charity has warned that while “robust” verification checks are a welcome change, pornography providers must work to stay a step ahead to make sure their measures continue to be effective.
“No checks are completely infallible, and we are concerned that children may be able to find ways to bypass age verification,” she said.
She added there would be a “a period of learning” for the public as the new age gates come into place. “The public needs to be aware of what age assurance is, how it works, and that it does not compromise their privacy or personal information.
“All platforms have a responsibility to keep children safe online and prevent them from accessing harmful content. They also have a duty to protect the data of their users. Implementing highly effective age assurance will mean that platforms need to process some form of personal data to verify a user’s age.
“However, Ofcom, as the regulator, has published clear guidance to platforms on users’ rights within data protection law, including ensuring that the minimum amount of data about a user is collected, how it can be used and how it should be kept secure.”
An Ofcom spokesperson said the new rules follow decades of an “age-blind internet” on which sites and apps that host porn “have simply not been doing any meaningful checks to see if children were using their services”, adding “that ends now”.
“These age checks will help stop young children from stumbling across porn,” they continued. “And while the new rules have only been in place for a matter of hours, we will be actively assessing compliance to make sure platforms have age checks in place and that they are highly effective. Companies that fall short can expect to face enforcement action.
“We have been clear that sites must not encourage or direct users to get around age checks, including through the use of VPNs. But VPNs are not illegal and there are legitimate uses for them. People should be aware that children and adults who use a VPN to bypass age checks will not benefit from the wider protections offered by our online safety rules.”
Ofcom previously said the new measures were “key” to helping to protect children from harmful online content.
“Strong age checks can be done effectively, safely, and in a way that protects your privacy,” a post on the Ofcom website said. “As with everything you do online, you should exercise a degree of caution and judgement when giving over personal information.
“In the UK people are familiar with having to prove their age in the offline world to buy age-restricted goods like alcohol and tobacco. Age checks to access online pornography are just the same. It will help stop children from encountering pornography online, in the same way that a child should not be able to simply walk into a shop and buy a pornographic DVD or magazine.”
