TonyBaggett / WIRED

The UK's plan to stick all online pornography behind age-verification barriers has turned into a mess. Yesterday, culture secretary Jeremy Wright delayed the launch of the new regime for at least six months. But even before the delay was announced, pornographers were confused by what was happening and uncertain about its impact on a multi-billion pound industry.

Starting on July 15, 2019, websites made up of more than one-third pornographic content – video, audio or text – were supposed to show visitors from the UK a non-adult landing page that required them to prove they are over 18. Preparations for the change were nearing a conclusion with some pornographic websites – such as YouJizz.com – announcing the age-verification services they were planning on using.


But with Wright's statement, all this has changed. The July date is now moot, with age-verification looking unlikely to be introduced before the end of 2019. However, despite the delay, major pornographic websites, plus the groups that represent their interests have big concerns about the impact of the new law. "I don't think any of us really know what's going to happen or on what schedule," one executive from a large pornography website, who does not wish to be identified, said before the delay. "It all keeps changing."

The executive explains that their website is planning on complying with the requirements to check the ages of visitors from the UK but expresses worries about what will happen once they start to be enforced. "There are going to be lots of different systems, and it's going to limit what consumers use," they say. "There's not one approval, so the open internet will become like pre-EU Europe, with everyone using a different currency and border checks everywhere."

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Within the UK, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has been placed in charge of producing guidelines about the UK porn block and taking action when a website hasn't included age checks. The BBFC has been working on age-verification for multiple years but has been at the whim of government changes. Wright's delay – which is the third time the law has been postponed – comes after the government discovered it hadn't told the EU Commission about its planned changes.

Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition, which is a trade association for the adult industry in America, says the BBFC has largely been communicative about its plans, visiting the group and its members, but that there is still a huge amount of uncertainty around what the Digital Economy Act will mean in practice.


"It has the potential to radically reshaped the industry," Stabile says. The anonymous porn industry executive agrees, saying there's a lot that's still theoretical about the plan. "By theoretical I mean that the UK government developing rules without a clear idea as to what the reaction will be. Previous attempts to block porn have been plagued with issues." A representative of the website BongaCams, before the delay, said it didn't know July 15 had been set as the date for age checks to be introduced. It also asked WIRED UK if we could provide recommendations about the age-verification systems other similar websites may be planning to use.

The UK porn block, explained Technology The UK porn block, explained

Asking people to hand over their personal information to age-verification providers is likely to people off visiting adult sites, Stabile predicts. He says he wouldn't be surprised if people start viewing more pirated content to avoid handing over their personal details. He also adds that the exemption of social media websites from the UK porn law means people made uneasy by the blocks are likely to move to platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Snapchat to view adult material.

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The sprawling nature of the porn industry means it is hard to forecast its economic value – estimates range between $5 billion (£3.95bn) and $95bn (£76bn) per year. Wherever the true figure lies, online pornography is one of the biggest parts of the industry. Of the UK's 50 biggest websites by user numbers, five are adult websites. (Others, such as Reddit and Twitter also host adult material).


Live streaming and webcam website LiveJasmin says it is trying to work out how much of an effect the porn block with have on its user figures. "We do not expect all our users will take the necessary steps to enter the website because of the new regulations, but our job for now is to keep on improving the website and making it as attractive as can be," a spokesperson for the website explains. "With all that said, the United Kingdom is one of our biggest European markets so we expect the impact to be significant."

Confusion also exists around how many pornographic websites really understand what is required from the UK's planned changes. While the delays have given websites more time to get age-verification technology in place, it has also resulted in uncertainty, Stabile adds. "A lot of stuff that we have learned about the changes have been from what we've read in the papers.

"If I were to talk to our largest members they understand that this is coming," he says. "But when you talk to individual producers, [of] which there are thousands or tens of thousands, there's not a lot of communication."

Even though the delay has now been confirmed, the pornography industry still worries there is a lack of consumer knowledge when it comes to the porn block. Previous research from xHamster, which is listed as the 35th most-visited website in the UK, has shown a lack of awareness in the upcoming block. In March 2019 it asked UK visitors to its website whether they knew about the planned changes, finding that only 47.4 per cent of respondents were aware of the plans.

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Dubbing the changes 'Sexit' the company found that around 40 per cent of people didn't know if they would enter their details into age-verification technology. (Simple routes around age checks exist: mostly in the form of VPNs). In the blog post about the company's findings Alex Hawkins, vice president of xHamster, said the firm was planning on introducing age checks. “However, the data seems to show that a vast majority of porn users will abandon the UK regulations, either by leaving UK internet space, or by abandoning online content altogether," Hawkins added.

There are also concerns that when the checks do eventually come into place, the porn viewers that do use age-verification will not fully check the technology they are using. Terms and conditions for websites are rarely read in normal web browsing circumstances. "When you're in a position where you want to look at adult content and there's this this thing here, you have to make a decision, do I trust this thing?" Stabile says. "I'm unlikely at that point to do a deep dive and really try to understand what they're doing and how they're protecting the information. You're in a sort of vulnerable place."

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