There’s About To Be A Huge Crackdown On Porn


We hate to break it to you, but there’s about to be some serious changes to porn as we know it. It’s quite sad really, as there’s actually a lot of porn companies who are doing good things.

Pornhub in particular is one name in the industry that regularly make headlines for their groundbreaking approach to a sector that is still a taboo to many.

From offering subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing viewers to allowing users to pay in cryptocurrency for premium content, Pornhub’s open and modern approach to porn has earned them considerable praise.

However the UK government is now seeking to impose much stricter laws for online pornography and who can access the websites.

By the end of 2018, all commercial pornography sites will have to find a way to “effectively verify” that their users in the UK are 18 or over.

This means going much further than simply asking viewers to tick a box to confirm their age, rather much more complex verification systems that will require users to prove their identity.

Something which will not sit easy with many people.

Whilst the UK government are claiming that such measures, which are part of the Digital Economy Act, passed last year, will make the country the safest in the world for children to be online, others are claiming signals a step closer to censorship of the internet.

Privacy experts also suggest that the change would put too much personal data in the hands of the adult film industry, making it a possible target for hackers.

Jerry Barnett, a campaigner for free speech and sexual freedom, warned TIME: “This is the first example in a western country of an official state Internet censor being introduced,

“The fact that their first power relates to porn sites is less relevant.”

A government conducted study found that one in five British children aged 11 to 17 had seen pornographic images that had shocked or upset them.

David Austin, the chief executive of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the government-appointed body that, will decide which sites must verify the ages of their visitors, argued that the decision is not censorship: “At the moment, pornography is only one click away for any child in the UK,

“It’s a child protection measure,

“What it isn’t, is censorship.”