Newsagents are to sell “porn passes” that will allow over-18s to access adult websites following the launch of new age-verification laws later this year.
A source at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) told the newspaper that the pass would be “a fully anonymous option” for the 25 million Britons who admit to visiting X-rated sites.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Under the new laws, which are designed to prevent children from accessing adult content, over-18s will be required to confirm their age to enter porn sites. Users can also do this by giving credit card information or driving licence details to a piece of verification software, but this has raised security concerns, says the Daily Mirror.
Gizmodo argues that storing credit card details with a third-party verification company is “bad for all sorts of reasons”, with web users facing the risk of substantial data leaks.
However, a spokesperson for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport insisted: “We expect data security to be a high priority in the BBFC’s guidance on age verification arrangements.”
“A wide variety of online age verification solutions exist, or are in development, and they will have to abide by these high standards”, the spokesperson added.
The new age verification rules were originally due to come into effect in April, but the Government announced in March that the launch was being delayed until later this year, to allow more time “to get the implementation of the policy right”.