The UK Government has announced plans for a renewed push on controversial “porn block” legislation.  

On Tuesday, Digital Minister Chris Philp revealed the government plans to add new provisions to the Online Safety Bill that would see the introduction of revised porn block legislation. 

As part of the changes, sites that publish pornography would be required to implement “robust checks” to ensure users are 18 years old or over. 

“This could include adults using secure age verification technology to verify that they possess a credit card and are over 18 or having a third-party service confirm their age against government data,” the government said in a statement. 

Sites which fail to comply with the act could face fines of up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover or risk being blocked in the UK. 

Additionally, executives of websites found to have breached legislation could be held criminally liable if they fail to cooperate with Ofcom, which under government plans would be tasked with ensuring compliance. 

Commenting on the proposals, Digital Minister Chris Philp said: “It is too easy for children to access pornography online. Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from seeing things no child should see. 

“We are now strengthening the Online Safety Bill so it applies to all porn sites to ensure we achieve our aim of making the internet a safer place for children.”

These latest proposals follow an earlier charge by the UK Government to introduce a highly controversial porn block legislation. 

First proposed in the 2017 Digital Economy Act, the porn block legislation was expected to come into force in April 2018. However, the legislation was delayed twice before being scrapped in October 2019. 

The legislation was widely criticised by privacy rights activists amid concerns that large volumes of citizen data would be collected and potentially exposed.

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Questions still remain over how any proposed porn block would function on an individual basis and what sites would fall under the bill.

In its statement on Tuesday, the government said that “many sites” where under-18s are likely to be exposed to pornography are already in the scope of the draft Online Safety Bill.

This includes the “most popular pornography sites as well as social media, video-sharing platforms and search engines”.

Under the new draft proposals, only commercial porn sites that allow “user-generated content” – such as OnlyFans – fall under the scope of the bill.

The government said: “The new standalone provision ministers are adding to the proposed legislation will require providers who publish or place pornographic content on their services to prevent children from accessing that content.

“This will capture commercial providers of pornography as well as the sites that allow user-generated content. Any companies which run such a pornography site which is accessible to people in the UK will be subject to the same strict enforcement measures as other in-scope services.”

“Little practical benefit”

Privacy groups such as the Open Rights Group have warned that new age verification practices will do little to protect children online and will result in profiling of users simply for visiting sites such as Reddit. 

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, commented: “There is no indication that this proposal will protect people from tracking and profiling porn viewing.  

“We have to assume the same basic mistakes about privacy and security may be about to be made again.”

Killock added: “The proposal could force people to age verify before using Google search or reading Reddit. This appears to be a huge boon to age verification companies, for little practical benefit for child safety, and much harm to people’s privacy.”

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