Porn sites urged to implement age checks

A child safety coalition is urging pornography sites operating in the UK to implement age verification controls to prevent children stumbling on explicit content.

An open letter organised by Barnardo's and signed by various other charities also calls for sites to remove "illegal and harmful content" that would be classed as illegal if a person was found in possession of it.

The letter states:

"We are writing to you as representatives of UK based children’s, human rights and violence against women and girls organisations as well as concerned individuals, about the disturbing prevalence of harmful and violent content on your pornography websites.

"In 2015/16 pornography was accessed 1.4 million times by UK children every month. That number is likely to be higher now due to the increase in time spent online during and post pandemic. Therefore, at the very minimum over the next three years children could access pornography over 50 million times."

It adds:

"Despite pornography websites stating that harmful, violent and illegal content is prohibited, it remains visible, including to children. We also have concerns about the way content is categorised, with some sites including terms that reference children, incest, abuse and harassment.

"We do acknowledge that steps have been taken to protect children, such as Mindgeek’s recent deterrence collaboration with The Lucy Faithfull Foundation. However, with children easily accessing pornography every day and viewing content that is extremely harmful, so much more needs to be done to keep them safe.

"We are calling on you as leaders of the industry to come together and implement measures that will prevent harmful, abusive and illegal content being viewed by children across the country. Please begin the process of implementing robust age verification on your sites at the earliest possible opportunity and take active steps to ensure the content on your sites meets the British Board of Film Classification standards".

CARE has campaigned for stronger curbs on online porn for many years and has welcomed a move to stop kids accessing porn sites under the government's Online Safety Bill.

When this legislation comes into force, all commercial porn sites will be required to verify the age of users through age verification or face huge fines.

Speaking in February, CEO CARE's CEO Ross Hendry said age verification is "long overdue" and urged Ministers to enact the safeguard now, as an "interim" measure.

The government can enact legislation from 2015 to allow this to happen within a matter of months, rather than the years required to pass the online safety regime.

Mr Hendry said:

“Age checks on porn sites should have been in place years ago. Questions have been asked about why this didn’t happen. There are also concerns that it may be some time – perhaps years – before the online safety regime is ready. Children will remain unprotected until it is. We would ask UK Ministers to implement measures to protect kids from pornography in the interim.”