The UK is getting ready to push forward one of the world’s most ridiculous censorship laws yet. Starting April 1st, online pornography in the UK will only be viewable once the user inputs qualifying identification–or buys a porn card. Huge websites like those within the Pornhub network, will be forced to put forward a landing page that is not pornographic in material, in which the user can input information via what is now called the “AgeID” system.
The AgeID system requires a user to verify their identity and age via an official method like a driver’s license, credit card, or passport. The way it works is that a user will be asked to register or sign in with AgeID when visiting a site, and once their account is created and verified via official something like a license, they can use this account to watch adult content.
Not only that, but users can also buy “vouchers” or “ID cards” from shops that they can register to an app known as, Portes. Users can use this card and app to login to a website without having to hand over an email address. It would be like buying a gift card with cash and using that gift card to access your VPN, except you had to show personal identification to buy the card.
Spokesman for AgeID, James Clark, seems to think that the new process is intuitive and easy for users. Clark said: “It is a one-time verification, with a simple single sign-on for future access. If a user verifies on one AgeID protected site, they will not need to perform this verification again on any other site carrying AgeID.”
Clark also thinks that buying a “porn card” is a great way to protect a user’s privacy. The only kicker is that they cost £4.99 for use on a single device, or £8.99 for use across multiple devices. The cards also have a 24-hour limit and must be activated within that time frame or they are null.
The new rules are a proponent of the Digital Economy Act of 2017, in which the UK governing body aims to make it hard for under-aged youth to watch adult content on the web. If a site does not comply and make a landing page for AgeID, then the site could face fines up to 250,000 euros or be blacklisted from UK ISPs.
It’s hard to quantify exactly what this law is doing what, since it’s hard to examine what it is doing right. On one hand, it almost just seems like a simple scheme from the government to monetize online Porn content, by providing premium “porn cards” for a cost. Shouldn’t the porn cards be free? Will this money just go back to the government to fill their pockets?
Or is there something more nefarious and worrisome at hand? Since users are required to use AgeID to watch content, it sets up a dangerous precedent for how the internet is handled and “protected” by the government.
Sure, kids under 18 shouldn’t be watching Porn since it’s against the law, but the only way the law is effective if it doesn’t apply to adults at the same time. That’s why the age verification is needed to let adults watch content. However, this still makes adults comply with a system and give up their real-life personal information announcing that they are looking at adult material. Not only that, but there are potential security issues giving up information on sites that could spoof AgeID and use various other tricks to steal user’s personal information.
Who is to say that the UK won’t start requiring more and more websites to be protected by AgeID? How does the government decide what should be restricted by age? We’ve seen similar approaches in other countries where the government blacklists websites by the thousands and censors them in order to “protect the youth”. Internet censorship is a slippery slope, and one the UK looks like it is sliding down.
