Porn sites commit to robust age verification checks to protect children

Ofcom found that 8% of children aged eight to 14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month. ITV News presenter Faye Barker reports

The regulator Ofcom says children in the UK will be better protected from online pornography from July, as major providers, such as Pornhub, agree to bring in robust age checks.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms including social media and gaming all need to have highly effective age assurance in place by July 25, or face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.

Ofcom has also released new research today showing the extent to which children are accessing porn online.

The regulator found that 8% of children aged eight to 14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month, including around 3% of eight and nine year olds.

Ofcom’s research tracked the use of websites and apps by eight to 14 year olds across smartphones, tablets and computers over a month.

Boys aged 13-14 (19%) were mostly likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls of the same age (11%).

With older teenagers also likely to be accessing pornography, the total number of under-18s exposed to adult content is expected to be higher still.

Major porn providers operating in the UK have confirmed to Ofcom that they will introduce effective checks by next month’s deadline in order to comply with the new rules.

They include Pornhub, which is the most-visited pornographic service in the UK.

Other services who have told the regulator they are happy to be named at this stage include BoyfriendTV, Cam4, FrolicMe, inxxx, Jerkmate, LiveHDCams, MyDirtyHobby, RedTube, Streamate, Stripchat, Tube8, and YouPorn.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom group cirector of online safety said: “Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren’t suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling. But for too long children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online.

“Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.”

As well as preventing children from accessing harmful content, platforms must also ensure that the new measures do not exclude adults from accessing legal content, nor compromise their privacy.