PM says he will introduce legislation that could see websites shut down if they fail to bring in effective age-restricted controls

David Cameron is to give pornography websites one last chance to produce an effective voluntary scheme for age-restricted controls on their sites or he will introduce legislation that could see them shut down.

At the election the then culture secretary, Sajid Javid, said the party would act to ensure under-18s were locked out of adult content and the Conservative election Facebook page in April promised legislation to achieve this.

It followed a Childline poll that found nearly one in 10 12-13-year-olds were worried they were addicted to pornography and 18% had seen shocking or upsetting images.

In a consultation to be launched in the autumn, the government will seek views on how best to introduce measures to further restrict under-18s’ access to pornographic websites.

The industry, in the shape of either UK-based websites or internet service providers, will be given an opportunity to develop proposals to block content through payment providers, such as advertisers and other means.

The consultation will also consider the best form of legislation should voluntary agreements not work. A regulatory approach could see primary legislation introduced to make it an offence in the UK to publish pornography online without age verification controls, possibly with a regulator to oversee and enforce controls.

The government recognises the spread of the internet makes it a challenge to find a form of legislation that would cover such sites both in the UK and internationally. The government has raised the prospect of setting up a pornography regulator to oversee the process and fine firms that breach either legislation or the voluntary guidelines.



The top 10 most frequented pornography sites in the UK take 52% of traffic and have next to no controls. Government sources said “all provide free content upfront and none have robust age verification to protect under-18s in place at present, whilst DVDs containing explicit pornographic content are subject to age controls for purchase in licensed sex shops.”

The aim is to ensure that the rules that apply offline apply online, giving parents the peace of mind of knowing that their children can use the internet safely.

Cameron said his government was working “to make the internet a safer place for children, the next step in this campaign is to curb access to harmful pornographic content, which is currently far too widely available.

“I want to see age restrictions put into place or these websites will face being shut down.”

The minister for internet safety and security, Joanna Shields, said: “As a result of our work with industry, more than 90% of UK consumers are offered the choice to easily configure their internet service through family-friendly filters – something we take great pride in having achieved. It’s a gold standard that surpasses those of other countries.

“Whilst great progress has been made, we remain acutely aware of the risks and dangers that young people face online. This is why we are committed to taking action to protect children from harmful content. Companies delivering adult content in the UK must take steps to make sure these sites are behind age verification controls.”

Although these figures are hard to verify, Comscore statistics show that many children in the UK view online pornography. In May 2015, one in five under-18s in the UK visited an adult site and one in 10 UK visitors to adult sites were children. Pornography tops the list of online risks named by children, with more than one in five young people expressing concern about such content, according to Kids Online research in 2013.

At the time the Conservatives first made their proposals, the Mothers’ Union chief executive, Reg Bailey, who was commissioned by Cameron to investigate the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, said it was “a really welcome development”.

He said: “A key recommendation of the Letting Children Be Children review ... was to help parents protect children from inappropriate content on the internet, especially pornography.

“Although huge progress has been made, this is a real step forward.”