Last week, the UK government quietly shelved plans to introduce age restrictions for online pornography , widely referred to as the ‘porn block.’
The porn block was first suggested by David Cameron back in 2013, and was originally meant to be in place by April 2018.
However, this launch date was stalled several times, before the government ultimately decided to ditch it altogether.
Now, the government has revealed that more than £2 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on the porn block.
In response to a written question from MP Tom Watson, Matt Warman explained: “Development costs from 2015-2016 were met through existing DCMS headcount resources.
“Since 2016, the government has spent approximately £2.2million through a contractual agreement with the British Board for Film Classification to implement age verification for online pornography."
The decision to ditch the porn ban was revealed in a statement by Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan last week.
She said: "The government has concluded that this objective of coherence will be best achieved through our wider online harms proposals and, as a consequence, will not be commencing Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 concerning age verification for online pornography.
"The Digital Economy Act objectives will therefore be delivered through our proposed online harms regulatory regime.
"This course of action will give the regulator discretion on the most effective means for companies to meet their duty of care."
