I don't mind entering my birthday information into a website that involves drinking or even if I am looking at "the pornography." There are so many ways to find adult and mature information out there. Sometimes in a search, an age verification prompt will pop up where you have to prove your age more so than just entering in month/day/year. Most will pair their age verification with a bump on a credit card. I usually skip over those and get back to the free and easily accessible sites.
Skipping to the free and non-age verified sites may be coming to an end in the UK.
The government’s new Digital Economy Act will see porn websites forced to check if users are over 18 – and an outright ban on ‘extreme porn’.
What that means is that porn involving realistic depictions of rape, or sexual acts likely to cause harm or death, will be banned outright in the UK.
The British Board of Film Censors will oversee the ban – which will classify and block extreme porn sites from March next year.
But while the ban will see some unpleasant porn blocked, privacy groups say it’s ‘unworkable’ – and could see normal porn sites banned alongside ‘extreme’ ones.
Myles Jackman, legal director of Open Rights Group, told Mashable, ‘The definition of sexual acts likely to cause death is incredibly vague and could include fictionalised practices like asphyxiation, for example.’
A spokesman for Open Rights Group said, ‘The DEAct may result in legal pornographic content being blocked – either because a site has failed to implement age verification or because the BBFC decide some of a site’s content falls within the definition of extreme pornography.
‘This has implications for the freedom of expression of thousands of UK web users.’
The government’s new Digital Economy Act could also force viewers to register their age before viewing online porn.
That could mean that users are forced to input credit card details, mobile numbers – or even registering their age at the Post Office.
The Digital Economy Act received Royal Assent last month – and that means the age restrictions will be enforced in Britain. – metro.co.uk
If one registers and sends their credentials into a site, could ‘Ashley Madison’ style leaks happen?
Could leaving age verification up to porn companies to implement pose risks?
If the government wants to have Age Verification in place, shouldn't the government run the system and tools of verification?
Who specifically will be responsible for drawing the acceptable/unacceptable line in the sand?
h/t: metro.co.uk
You’ll just have to do what I
You'll just have to do what I do here in a South Korea: use a VPN. The Opera browser has a free one built in, which is cool, though there are lots of others.