PORN website visitors will have to prove they are over 18 to access adult content from next year, the Government has announced.

Users will have to provide credit card details to get on the site in a bid to protect children from porn content.

3 Users of porn sites will be required to enter their credit card details from next year Credit: Getty Images

Websites flouting the new rules, set to be part of the Digital Economy Act, could find a regulator has told their internet service providers to block access to them.

The aim is for all online porn to have age verification by April 2018.

It will be overseen by a new regulatory body, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said.

Online porn has been blamed for damaging development and decision-making and has been seen by 65 per cent of 15 to 16-year-olds.

Nearly half of all 11 to 16-year-olds have seen it, the NSPCC says.

Its study also found that 28 per cent of children may have stumbled across pornography while 19 per cent had actively searched for it.

3 The move is part of a Government crackdown children viewing porn - with nearly half of all 11 to 16-year-olds having seen it Credit: Getty

Will Gardner, chief executive of internet safety charity Childnet, said: “Protecting children from exposure to adult content is incredibly important, given the effect it can have on young people.

“Steps like this to help restrict access, alongside free parental controls and education, are key.

“It is essential to help parents and carers, as well as young people, be more aware of this risk and what they can do to prevent exposure and also to make sense of exposure if it happens.”

3 Digital minister Matt Hancock claimed the UK will have 'the most robust internet child protection measures in the world' Credit: EPA

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Digital minister Matt Hancock, who is set to formally kick start the process with a written statement to the House of Commons tomorrow, said: “Now we are taking the next step to put in place the legal requirement for websites with adult content to ensure it is safely behind an age verification control.

“All this means that while we can enjoy the freedom of the web, the UK will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world.”