There is going to be a big shift in how people in the UK visit websites that contain pornographic content.
Pornhub and other well-known adult websites are now implementing advanced age checks in accordance with the Online Safety Act, which mandates that websites make it more difficult for minors to view explicit content.
According to new research by Ofcom, eight per cent of eight to 14-year-olds in the UK visited a pornography site in one month with 19 per cent of boys aged 13 and 14 visiting the sites. Around 11 per cent of girls the same age visited pornography sites in one month.
The regulator's group director of online safety, Oliver Griffiths, said: “Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren’t suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling.
“But for too long children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online. Now, change is happening.
“These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.”
Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know.
What are the new rules?
By July 25, all websites and applications that permit pornography in the UK must have "highly effective" ways to verify users' ages.
Reddit has already implemented age verification to prevent users under the age of 18 from viewing “certain mature content” while Pornhub and several other prominent adult websites have announced plans to implement more stringent age checks.
According to Ofcom, Grindr and X have agreed to age checks. Using its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technology, X claims to be introducing external facial age estimation.
Following testing procedures, Discord offers users in the UK the option of using their face or ID to confirm their age, and Bluesky claims to provide a variety of external verification options for users in the UK.
Numerous other services that permit sexually explicit content might have to implement changes to conform to the new regulations.
How will websites verify age?
Adult websites can employ a variety of techniques to confirm a user's age, and Ofcom suggests seven of them. To give users options, a website might enable a combination of them.
One way of verifying your age is you provide your credit card details and a payment processor checks if the card is valid.
Verifymy, an age verification company, claims that when you use this service, a two-factor authentication check and a small transaction without any financial exchange occur, much like when you check into a hotel.
Digital identity services, such as digital identity wallets, can securely store and share information which proves your age.
A third method includes providing your email address, and technology analyses other online services where it has been used - such as banking or utility providers - in order to reach a decision on your age.
Possibly the most common route websites will take is photo ID matching, where you upload an image of an ID document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time. These are then compared to confirm the document is yours.
Other methods that could possibly be utilised include facial age estimation, mobile network operator age checks and securely accessing your bank account for age verification.
Since some age verification techniques, such as email-based estimation, analyse user data from other online services, they present privacy problems.
Platforms are also required by the new regulations to make sure age verification procedures don't jeopardise their privacy or deny people access to lawful content.
