Porn sites to make major change to who can watch x-rated videos

People will have to verify their age to watch porn videos online, Ofcom has announced.

From July 25, all sites that show pornographic material, will adopt ‘tough’ checks that viewers are over 18 in a bid to stop children developing addictions to X-rated content.

Major porn providers in the UK including Pornhub, BoyfriendTV and Cam4 have all agreed to implement the change by next month’s deadline.

Eight per cent of British eight to 14-year-olds had visited a porn site or app in a month, a new study has found, including three per cent of eight to nine year olds.

Boys aged 13 to 14 were the most likely to view porn with 19 per cent having done so, with girls seeing significantly less, on 11 per cent.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle, said: ‘Children will be prevented from accessing porn from next month thanks to the Online Safety Act.

‘I’m glad to see that Pornhub and others have today made it clear they will be bringing in tough age assurance methods to comply with the law.’

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s director of online safety, said the change would bring pornography in line with other adult restricted activities such as smoking and drinking alcohol.

He 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.’

Marcus Johnstone of PCD Solicitors, a firm which specialises in providing legal representation for people accused of sexual offences, said the ‘frighteningly easy’ access of explicit material by minors had become a ‘dangerous trend’.

He said: ‘I come across people of all ages in my work who are addicted to porn and there is no question that this is starting at an ever younger age.

‘The platforms are designed to be addictive and can lead people to seek progressively more extreme material. In some cases, porn can influence real life behaviour encouraging impressionable young people to try rough sex and so on.’

But he added that increased scrutiny from Ofcom and the threat of fines alone would not be enough to combat the issue, and that preventing children from accessing porn in an age where people are having sex earlier.

‘The big challenge for the websites and apps that offer legal pornography is how to ensure robust and effective age checks when we know the youngsters of today are agile at circumvention’, he said.

‘I hope the threat of fines and scrutiny from OFCOM help but it would seem to me that until we introduce ID cards and digital ID it will be impossible for the tech companies to ensure proper compliance.’

‘Of course the real danger zone for pornographic material is the dark web where extreme and illegal material proliferates and there is frighteningly easy access.’

‘I have cases where clients as young as 14 access the dark web. In one case my client, aged 15, accessed the dark web to buy drugs (delivered to his local Post Office) but also then found access to extreme illegal pornography.’

He continued: ‘As a society we must accept that children, although illegal, are having sex at a younger age. In my opinion it will be impossible to stop them viewing porn sites. Any teenager with a phone can now watch and read content that is both illegal and heinous, and is unregulated by any company or agency.

‘It is the dark web that is the greatest menace to our society and is a gateway to a world of abuse, exploitation and radicalisation. This is where better policing is required but if we can stop our kids wanting to go there in the first place that must be a good thing.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.