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The pornography industry in the UK is helping to develop a scheme that will see adult users forced to verify their ages and identities before they are able to access adult material on the internet.

Operators of adult on-demand video service in the UK have acknowledged the need for robust age-verification systems, in anticipation of legislation set to be introduced by the new Conservative government.


The pledge to block sites that don't comply with the new law was a key manifesto promise made by David Cameron's party during its general election campaign.

The Digital Policy Alliance, a cross-party body that represents the internet and technology sector, has prepared a draft briefing for consent-based, confidential online age verification. Their draft includes views from the regulated pornography industry in the UK, operating under the banner of the Adult Provider Network.

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Speaking on behalf of the network, Chris Ratcliff called for age verification which maintained "a frictionless, privacy‐preserving user experience". The processes put in place, he added, must "be cost‐effective, fit for purpose and easy to integrate, particularly for small business operators".

If the Adult Provider Network can prepare for the introduction of a new law governing age verification, it may be able to develop a system that will avoid many of the privacy issues that would occur if people's identities were linked directly to their internet use. It is likely that an effective age-verification system would rely on the principle, as defined by the Digital Policy Alliance, of "verify once, use many times", using information that is already on file -- either from the public sector or the private sector.

According to the Guardian, the system would allow users to log in to a chosen identity provider -- using credit cards, mobile phone providers or even the NHS -- and would then run checks against the data. In order that the provider doesn't find out the reason for the identity check, and the site the user is trying to access, the checks would be run through an "anonymising hub".


There are benefits and drawbacks to such a system, in that it would improve upon checks currently in place that rely upon users submitting their credit card information, but could potentially link access to specific pornography sites to people's identities if stringent privacy protection is not put in place.

Ratcliff points out that parity is also needed between the frameworks that regulate the UK industry and those from the EU and beyond. Almost 100 percent of online adult video content emanates from beyond the UK and therefore falls beyond the scope of UK regulation. "As it stands minors remain unprotected and UK providers are unable to compete effectively in the global online space," he says in his report to the Digital Policy Alliance.

There is little doubt that the legislation, which is primarily being framed as child safety legislation, will be passed by Parliament. Age verification, it seems, is inevitable, and it is therefore essential that the focus now should be on protecting the privacy of internet users in the UK.