By Dan Milmo
Published on 10 Mar 2023
The online safety bill is due to become law this year and it imposes a duty of care on tech companies to protect children from harmful content. However, there are calls from campaigners and peers to toughen the legislation’s provisions regarding pornography. Here is what the act proposes to do on adult material.
Will the online safety bill prevent children from accessing pornography?
The bill requires all pornography websites, such as Pornhub, to ensure children do not encounter their content. This will require age-checking measures. The legislation refers to stringent age verification – checking a user’s age via government ID or an authoritative data source such as a person’s bank – as a means of doing so. Breaches of the act carry the threat of a fine of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover or, in extreme cases, blocking a website altogether.