- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Want to Watch Porn? UK Parliament Moves Closer to Mandating Viewer Registration

© Photo : PixabayFingerprints
Fingerprints - Sputnik International
Subscribe
On Monday, the UK House of Commons passed the Digital Economy Bill, which will require British nationals to register with the government in order to watch porn.

The Digital Economy Bill will now go on for review at the House of Lords, the Belfast Telegraph reports. In addition to the special age verification system, the law includes other features that sound like they were ripped out of a George Orwell book—and  may not even be effective in achieving their intended aim.  

The proposed law also makes provisions for increased data-sharing, restricting access to online commercial pornography, and altering the county’s electronic communications infrastructure and services, according to the UK Parliament.

Free speech advocates and security experts argue that pornographic material banned by the bill could still be made available via non-adult outlets such as Twitter, according to the news outlet, and that the age verifications could jeopardize UK residents’ cybersafety.

Matt Hancock, UK Culture Minister, said that the changes will protect children under a more robust regime, even though the proposed measures do not add up to a “utopia,” the Belfast Telegraph reports.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond launched on Tuesday the government’s new National Cyber Security Strategy, allocating an investment of 1.9 billion pounds ($2.32 billion) to boost the country's resilience to cyberattacks - Sputnik International
UK Treasury to Invest Over $2Bln in Enhancing Cybersecurity

And there are other, less threatening features of the bill, such as entitling consumers to a minimum internet speed, updated regulations dealing with telecommunications infrastructure, and modernized intellectual property statutes for digital industries, according to the Commons Library analysis of the Digital Economy Bill.

For his part, Ed Vaizey, former UK Minister for the Digital Economy said following publication of the bill that it would “provide the necessary framework to make sure we remain world leaders” at the frontier of technological change. 


Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала