Imagine your child or younger sibling heading to the internet and comes across an explicit website with pornographic content and find it interesting. There are very high chances that he or she will click on it to investigate. However, the porn website only asks the visitor two questions—whether he or she is 18 years and above. Obviously, the visitor can overrule the query to enter the website without any verification if he or she is above 18 years old.

In short, anyone can enter a porn website by simply clicking yes, ‘I am over 18 years of age’. So how should a porn website prevent a child from entering without proper verification of age?

In the offline world, if someone wants to purchase porn video CDs or DVDs, or watch an adult-rated movie in a theatre, he or she is asked for an age proof before being permitted. In the online world, there is no verification done, whatsoever, and this needs to be implemented urgently.

Pornography can be kept away from children using parental control software. However, implementing parental control rules needs a little expertise in order to be effective. And on the other hand, how many computers today have parental controls enabled or implemented? Walk down to a cybercafé and everything is open to all.

The Telegraph reported that, in order to tackle the issue from the root itself, British Politician Sajid Javid said that the British Political Party Tories will introduce new controls to stop children viewing pornography on the internet.

Sajid said that porn websites should be subject to an identical level of age verification, which is presently practiced by high street retailers selling porn video CDs and DVDs. He also said that, as a father of four young children himself, he is extremely worried about “how easy it is for them to view explicit material”, and the damage it could do to the young minds.

“That is why we need effective controls online that apply to UK and overseas. This is about giving children the best start in life; we do not want to prevent adults from accessing legal content but we do want to protect our children from harmful material, so they are free to develop a healthy attitude to sex and relationships,” says Javid.

The political party wants porn websites to have checks on visitors to be more effective than simply requiring someone to put in their date of birth.

The Telegraph also reported that a survey by NSPCC’s Childline service in the UK has found nearly one in every eight children (aged between 12 and 13) have made or been part of a sexually explicit video. The survey also found almost 9 per cent of the same age group is worried about being addicted to pornography. 18 per cent have seen pornographic images that have shocked or upset them.

The report states that there will be a regulator established to oversee pornographic websites and ensure that they have the necessary controls in place. The regulator will also be given the power to make Internet Service Providers to block the websites that fail to implement the controls.

Controls should be similar to electronic checks implemented by most betting websites, which verify the people’s age by matching their names with official records, and so on. With devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and alike around the place, it could get even easier to access porn websites as they do not feature efficient a parental control system.

Hence, porn websites will have to adhere to the new rules of age verification or face blackouts.

(Images in the article are for representational purposes only)

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