The government's much heralded porn "block" has been delayed once again.

Under the controversial plans, people will have to verify their age to access UK commercial pornographic websites in a bid to stop children accessing the content.

The legislation, which was passed as part of the 2017 Digital Economy Act, was initially expected to be in place by April 2018.

After being delayed last year, the minister for the department of digital, culture, media and sport, Margot James, told MPs: "We expect it to be in force by Easter of next year".

Image: MP Margot James said the plans would be in place by Easter

However, the department said a date has not been set for the roll-out of the policy.


"This work is a world-leading step forward to protect our children from adult content which is currently far too easy to access online," it said.

"We are taking the time to get the implementation of this policy right and to ensure it is effective, and we will announce a commencement date shortly".

Jim Killock from the Open Rights Group says the delays are due to serious concerns about privacy and data collection.

"When they consulted about the shape of age verification last summer they were surprised to find that nearly everyone who wrote back to them in that consultation said this was a privacy disaster and they need to make sure people's data doesn't get leaked out.

"Because if it does it could be that people are outed, have their relationships break down, their careers could be damaged, even for looking at legal material".

Image: Users will have to verify their age using a credit card, passport or special card bought from shops

The government isn't providing age verification software of its own; instead the pornography industry will decide for themselves how they verify a user's age.

Sites which fail to comply risk substantial fines or having websites banned by all internet service providers, with the British Board of Film Classification taking on the job of compliance.

AgeID is the age verification system being operated by the company MindGeek which runs a large number of porn websites such as PornHub and YouPorn.

Once the law comes in, anyone attempting to get onto one of these sites will be redirected to a "landing page" which will prompt the user to enter an email address and password. They will then verify their age using a credit card, passport or driving licence via a third party site or using a special card bought from shops.

Mr Killock told Sky News not enough has been done by the government to safeguard individuals from leaks, hacks or companies themselves using data they collect.

"At the very last minute it's (the government has) introduced a policy to certify some of the products as better for privacy (than others) but it's not compulsory and anybody who chooses one of those products might find they (the companies behind the sites) opt out of the privacy scheme at some point in the future," he said.

"And there are huge commercial pressures to do this because as we know with Facebook and Google user data is extremely valuable, it tells you lots about what somebody likes or dislikes or might want or not want.

"So those commercial pressures will kick in and they'll try to start to monetise that data and all of that data if it leaked out would be very damaging to people so it should simply never be collected".

Anyone not comfortable inputting their personal data online can buy what's been dubbed as a porn pass.

They'll be available from corner shops who will verify a customer's age and sell them a voucher with a code. That code can then be put into a porn website instead of a user's personal data.

Image: The pornography industry will decide for themselves how they verify a user's age

Serge Acker, chief executive of OCL who are behind the passes, told Sky News they believe the use of these vouchers will address concerns over data collection.

He said: "It's super safe because we have zero data. The only way to ensure its safe is if you don't record any data.

"The simplest way of thinking about it is authentication without identification, he said.

"The whole premise of the technology is we record nothing.

"When you download the app, we don't know who the user is. We don't have your email or anything. We don't record your IP address".

Another major criticism of the porn block has been the fact that it doesn't apply to social media and so children will still be able to access pornographic content relatively easily.

Misha Mayfair, a porn performer who uses Twitter to promote her work, told Sky News she believes the plans are deeply flawed. She argues the premise of age verification won't work - not to mention how it's being implemented.

Image: Porn performer Misha Mayfair believes the plans are deeply flawed

She said: "You can't trust the state and companies to babysit your children.

"I think what it comes down to is you really need to monitor your children and what they're doing online and how much free access they have to the internet because all the internet Facebook, YouTube, can all contain things you don't want your child to see."