While some governments, from feminist Iceland to Islamic fundamentalist Iran, have attempted to ban online pornography outright, most others primarily focus on protecting children from being involved in it.
This usually entails preventing minors from being sexually exploited by the industry; however, the British government is additionally interested in stopping adolescents from accessing adult content, according to The Independent.
Not content to simply rely on teenage boys to click 'No' if they are indeed under 18, Britain has devised a new method of determining if an individual is old enough to watch pornography. This age verification scheme requires each person within the system to be registered in a database.
The Open Rights Group, a digital rights watchdog, has expressed concern about the fact that such measure would create an entire personalized database of the UK’s porn viewing habits, and noted that this vulnerable set of information would require extra security.
The organization also noted that there is no proof an age verification mechanism would prevent eager teenagers from accessing forbidden content instead of boosting their eagerness.
“The Government appears to be looking for an easy fix to a complex social problem. The Internet has given young people unprecedented access to adult content but it’s education rather than tech solutions that are most likely to address problems arising from this,” the group wrote. “Serious questions about the efficacy and therefore proportionality of this measure remain.”
