UK says Tomcom to confirm the age of the user to see 6,000 porn sites

About 6,000 sites allowing porn in the UK will begin checking, if the users are more than 18 from Fridays, according to the media regulator.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Dame Melani Davas told the BBC “We are not only taking action from the technology industry” to improve online child safety.

He told BBC Radio Four’s program that “no other country had drawn such measures”, nor received commitments from so many platforms, including Elon Musk’s X, around age verification.

But the BBC understands that some major porn sites working in the UK do not require age check until Friday morning.

And the effectiveness of experts’ age is suspected about the effectiveness of the age and how easy it can be to sideline them, especially for children.

Ofcom Said on Thursday More platforms, including Discard, X (East Twitter), Social Media App Blussky and Dating App Grinder, agreed to bring them into age tests.

The regulator already committed to sites like Pornhub -UK’s most viewed porn website – and social media platform Redit.

The requirements for verifying age on reddit have become effective in a wide range of their personal, subject-based subredits, such as dedicated to discussion about alcohol.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told BBC Newsbeat that new UK rules apply “general knowledge” to regulate the Internet.

He said, “We are doing a lot of work to prove our age in many areas of life at this time, and it is understandable that when we talk about online activity we do more vocal.”

“I think people really think that it’s so strange that when you want to buy a can of a monster, you are checking age, but when you access some content online you don’t check age.”

UK new online security rules, explained:

Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the children’s charity the NSPCC, said that Friday’s new rules mean “cannot overcome their duties for safety of children”.

He said that it was “high time for tech companies” and prevented children from facing harmful materials on their platforms.

“Children, and their parents, should not take responsibility to protect themselves completely,” he said.

For Professor Elena Martelozo, Professor of Children’s Sexual Abuse and Abuse Research at the University of Edinburgh, the rules send a message to the technical industry that “child safety and child protection are not optional”.

“Failing to work is no longer under the guise of technical complexity or professional model,” he said.

Everyone believes that everyone’s rules go far enough to protect children, though.

Molly Rose Foundation, a charity founded by Molly Russell’s family – who took his life after seeing online harmful materials at the age of 14 – said that better security of children requires strong laws.

Charity Chief Executive Officer Andy Beroz said, “Commom has preferred” business needs of children “on children’s safety, thresholds for requirements and estimated costs for estimated costs that are required to force the largest companies to take action.

Derek Ray-Hil, the interim chief of the Internet Watch Foundation, meanwhile welcomed the new rules for porn allowing sites, but said “still something else is to be done”.

He said that platform operators should consider how to make them safe by design and “they can do everything they can ensure that we are building an internet that is safe for everyone”.

Others have expressed concern that people may find ways to ignore so -called age gates on porn sites – potentially pushing them to less regulated places with more dangerous and clear sexual materials.

Reed Amber Thomas-Litman, a sex worker and educator said, “A lot of porn is incredibly derogatory for women and has a lot of violence and aggression.”

“Of course, people, not just children or young adults, are going to copy it.”

He reported that newsbeat BBC Sex Education providing information about porn as part of the syllabus “can help young adults understand that it is a fantasy, it is not reality”.

He said that age investigation can also affect people who do not feel comfortable sharing their identity, such as LGBTQ+ people, they said.

“If you want to hand over your ID, it means that you have no security where that information is going on,” he said.

“It can go to third party companies and who knows what they will do with that information.”

Many sites that operate age verification services say that they do not maintain IDs, videos or images, which are necessary to carry the age check for longer than necessary.