UK Mandates Age Verification for Porn Sites by 2025

The UK’s communications regulator Ofcom has announced new requirements for websites hosting pornographic content to implement strict age verification measures for UK users by July of this year. The regulations, issued under the Online Safety Act (OSA), apply to all platforms hosting explicit material, including social media sites. This move follows similar initiatives in other jurisdictions, including France’s court-mandated ISP blocks of non-compliant sites.

The requirements mandate that websites must employ “robust” age verification methods, moving beyond simple self-declaration of age. Acceptable verification methods include open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator checks, credit card verification, digital identity services, and email-based age estimation. Companies like Yoti have made significant advances in facial age estimation technology, offering increasingly accurate solutions for online age verification.

For services publishing their own explicit content, including AI-generated material, these requirements take effect immediately. The regulations aim to address research findings showing children typically encounter pornographic content at age 13, with some accessing it as early as age nine.

Julie Dawson, Yoti’s chief regulatory and policy officer, emphasized the importance of consistent enforcement. “It is important that age assurance is enforced across pornographic sites of all sizes, creating a level playing field, and providing age-appropriate access for adults,” she said.

Early implementation data from Louisiana, which enacted similar measures, showed an 80 percent reduction in traffic to major pornographic websites. Aylo, parent company of Pornhub, reported that users “migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age.” This mirrors concerns raised by privacy advocates about the potential unintended consequences of strict verification requirements.

Silkie Carlo, head of Big Brother Watch, raised concerns about potential risks. “Children must be protected online, but many technological age-checking methods are ineffective and introduce additional risks to children and adults alike including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion, and censorship,” she said. These concerns echo broader debates about privacy and security in digital identity verification, as seen in recent warnings from the Open Technology Institute about the limitations of current age verification technologies.

To facilitate compliance, Ofcom has published detailed guidance for providers, including a comprehensive list of acceptable verification technologies.

Sources: BBC

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January 16, 2025 – by Ali Nassar-Smith