New age verification laws will roll out across the UK to limit children’s access to online porn.
The UK Government’s newly passed ‘Online Safety Bill’ includes the reforms.
Tech companies will take responsibility for ensuring under-18s can’t access porn and other age-inappropriate content.
Age verification
Mandatory age limits will impact how all UK users access porn online. However, the specifics around how age verification laws for porn will be implemented has not yet been confirmed.
One option is to require users to upload government ID or official documents before they can access adult content.
Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said the Online Safety Bill was part of the Government’s efforts towards making the UK “the safest place in the world to be online”.
Compliance
According to the bill, tech companies will receive guidance from the UK media regulator (OFCOM) on which age verification measures are suitable for their platforms.
Tech companies who fail to implement these measures could face fines of up to £18 million ($AU34.5 million) or 10% of their annual global turnover, whichever is larger.
Other measures
The bill will also tackle a range of illegal online content. This includes material promoting self-harm, bullying, suicide, eating disorders, and animal cruelty.
The Government says the bill will also make it easier to convict users who share unsolicited images or videos of their genitals and criminalise the sharing of intimate deepfakes.
Users caught sending unsolicited graphic content could face up to two years in prison.
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