Sex History Educational Site Wants To Know If It's Going To Be Bricked Up Behind UK's Porn Wall

from the are-you-old-enough-to-LEARN? dept

As the UK's porn filter move from "voluntold" to mandatory, questions are being raised (again) about the potential for overblocking. As is the case with any filtering system, things that should be allowed to go through sometimes end up caught in the netting.

In addition to the opt-out porn filtering system in place at UK internet service providers, the government is also demanding any site that meets its vague definition of pornographic verify users' ages before allowing them access. This will apparently be tied to credit cards and/or mobile phones, so the government can strip porn viewers of anonymity it will be slightly more difficult for the under-18 crowd to avail themselves of over-18 web goodies. (But not really.)

Because the blockaded content is so vaguely defined, education sites -- like the Whores of Yore site -- are likely to end up on the government's ID-please naughty list.

Whores of Yore is a website, run by academic Kate Lister, which describes itself as follows: “We are proudly sex-positive. An inter-disciplinary, pro-sex worker rights hub, dedicated to exploring the history of human sexuality and challenging shame and stigma.”

The site is slightly NSFW but not really the sort of thing that should be targeted when targeting porn. Unfortunately, the UK government prefers shotguns to sniper rifles and is apparently comfortable with collateral damage. The provision -- tied up with lots of other stupid/bad stuff in the Digital Economy Act -- says anything covered the government's R18 and 18 certificates (roughly XXX and R-rated, respectively) will need to be blocked with a government-ordained registration wall. Harder porn is covered by the R18. The 18 certification covers simple things like nudity, if the government decides the content is "titillating."

There certainly are some titillating things at Whores of Yore, but there's also a great deal of educational material. Concerned her site might be blocked, Lister asked the blocking government body directly for its view on her site's content. Results were inconclusive.

So Kate contacted the BBFC, the UK’s soon-to-be Internet censor with a simple question: will she be a criminal, and will her site be blocked, under the new regime? After all, these rules are set to become law within a few months, and have been under discussion for years. Predictably, the BBFC responded to say they simply can’t answer: “Work in this area has not yet begun and so we are not in a position to advice [sic] you on your website. Pages 23 and 24 of our Classification Guidelines detail the standards applied when classifying sex works at 18 and R18 however and may be of interest to you.”

In other words, the censoring agency has no idea. It simply asks questioners to read the same guidelines it will apparently be enforcing. As Lister says, reading the guidelines in hopes of finding clear delineations in content regulation is "about as useful as a chocolate dildo." Given this non-response, it's safe to assume when the blockade goes live, writers might need to search for less titillating metaphors if they're not behind an age verification wall.

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Filed Under: porn, porn filter, porn wall, sex education, uk, websites