Age verification laws: common sense or a flawed fix?
The long-awaited Online Safety Act comes into force this week, promising to make the internet safer, especially for young people. At the heart is a bold new requirement: adult content websites must use age verification technology to ensure under 18s do not have access to explicit materials. In response, Pornhub and other adult-content websites have confirmed they will introduce advanced age checks by 25th July. Reddit has followed suit, introducing measures to verify users' ages before they are allowed to view mature content. On the surface it seems eminently sensible. Common sense suggests that a 12-year-old should not be able to easily access explicit materials. Technology has developed, and it is time that the law caught up. However, it is not that simple. Concerns remain around the impact the new legislation will have on the privacy of legitimate users, as well as the real-world practicalities of implementation. In this blog, I’ll explore the legislation, the reasons why it should be implemented, and the challenges it faces.
The current situation
To fully understand the new verification laws, and their consequences, we must look at the status quo. Currently, self-declared ages are the norm. Most platforms simply ask users to enter their date of birth, or, in some cases, simply tick a box to confirm they are over 18. This means there are no real checks on who can access the content. A child simply must lie about their age to gain free access to browse explicit content. Although it is illegal for under-18s to access pornographic content, Ofcom do not yet have formal powers to police and penalise digital platforms for their failure in this area. In turn, this leads to little accountability or incentive for platforms to enforce strict age verification. Since Ofcom reports that 99% of children aged 5-15 use the internet in the UK, the access to pornography is near universal. Furthermore, the ease at which adult content can be encountered means that accidental exposure is a real risk.
Impact on young people
The consequences of this are stark. A 2023 Ofcom study found that half of 11–13-year-olds had seen porn online, while 10% of 9-year-olds have encountered it. Research strongly indicates that exposure to such content has a harmful effect on young people’s minds. Negative consequences include normalising sexual harm, the formation of misogynistic attitudes, and the development of addictions. Police recorded sexual violence is on the rise, and children’s access to violent pornography is being increasingly linked to growing rate of sexual violence against women. This evidence points towards the need for greater regulation of adult content. Young people have unprecedented access to harmful content, and yet, whilst the pornographic industry has developed, shifting seamlessly from magazines and DVDs to online streaming, the law has failed to keep up. Therefore, the Online Safety Act comes into force at a pivotal time.
Details of the Bill
The Bill, which was enacted in 2023, intends to make the internet a safer place, especially for children, by introducing new obligations for online service providers. As well as the age verifications, the act mandates that companies remove harmful content (such as that relating to suicide or self-harm), and introduce clearer report mechanisms. All in all, firms that wish to continue operating in the UK must adopt more than 40 new measures to make their platforms safer. The most significant part of the act is the new age verification laws. The act includes measures to implement age assurances and verification systems to ensure that children cannot access content that is not intended for them. Ofcom’s guidance suggests that age verification must be “highly effective” at determining whether a user is over 18, and they have recommended seven methods in which adult websites may choose to verify a user's age. These include credit card age checks and AI powered facial age estimation. It is likely that websites will allow a number of these methods, giving users a choice.
The case for change
The benefits of this legislation are extensive and obvious. The evidence I have already outlined demonstrates the scale of the problem. The problem has two components; first, the ease at which young people can access explicit content, and secondly the damage this is doing. Almost all young people aged 10 and over have access to the internet, which means they can access porn with a few clicks. The second component is the damage that this access is doing to young people. Research is extensive and conclusive; young people are being exposed to porn more than ever before, which is having dangerous consequences. This type of legislation is not new. For a long time, society has protected young people from things that could be harmful to their wellbeing. It is impossible for someone under the age of 18 to legally access cigarettes, whilst gambling companies require age verification through ID checks, but pornography remains freely accessible. This legislation will ensure that young people cannot access such harmful content, bringing pornography in line with other harmful products.
Supporting evidence
The United Kingdom is also not the first country to bring in age verification for porn sites. France (2021) and Australia (2022) have already introduced similar legislation. Evidence from these countries suggests that the introduction of such laws, can, and has been effective. In France, traffic from under-18s dropped on compliant sites, while similar results have been seen in Australia. Furthermore, cyberpsychology experts suggest that age verification can act as a meaningful deterrent, whilst the introduction of age gates reduce impulsive and accidental access. Although it is difficult to draw conclusions since these laws have been introduced relatively recently, early signs suggest that where similar legislation to that in the Online Safety Act is introduced, it has been effective.
Privacy concerns
Whilst there is undoubtedly a strong case for age verifications, concerns remain about the bill. One of the key concerns is around the risk verification poses to privacy. Aylo, which runs several pornographic websites, including Pornhub, has stopped operating in France, as well as a number of US states, due to these risks. This follows laws being introduced requiring sites to take extra steps to verify their users’ ages. Furthermore, in 2017, the Government passed the Digital Economy Act, requiring age checks for porn sites. However, implementation was delayed multiple times, before being abandoned in 2019 due to privacy concerns, a lack of clarity on how it could be enforced, and pushback from tech companies and civil liberties organisations. Similarly, there are still legitimate concerns around this bill. Users may have to share sensitive documents, raising fears of data breaches and misuse. This is further confounded by concerns around a lack of regulation of private verifying firms that are likely to be used. Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties campaign organisation, suggested checks could lead to “security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship”.
Practicalities
There are also fears around the practicalities of the new legislation, with some campaigners suggesting that the new regulations could be easily circumvented. For example, VPNs could be used to reroute traffic through a different location, allowing individuals access to foreign versions of the sites, which may lack the same strict age regulations. A pattern has emerged of VPN usage surging up in countries in which age verification checks have been introduced. A YouGov poll in 2024 found that 53% of 16–24-year-olds had used a VPN before, whilst NordVPN published a report suggesting that most of their UK users are Gen-Z (13-28 year olds). With young people becoming increasingly tech-savvy, and online hacks popular on social media, it is easy to see a situation in which most young people find a way to get around the age verifications, rendering the legislation futile.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges, I believe that the introduction of the online safety act is an imperative step forward. The evidence is stark. Young people have access to content that has not been possible in the past, and this is having real world consequences. It is not good enough to continue to avoid difficult policy decisions. Concerns around privacy and fears around the practicalities of such legislation are valid to a point, but they can no longer be used as a fig leaf to shirk responsibility. To do so would be a dereliction of duty and we owe it to future generations to get this right. Privacy concerns are legitimate, and I have no doubt that there will be ways for young people to still access adult content, however, the greater risk lies in failing to act. The complexities should not be a barrier to implement legislation that will keep young people safe, but a motivator to implement strong, effective policies. No system is watertight, and this should not be the aim. Instead, the legislation included in the Online Safety Act should be a first step towards a safer internet. Just as the internet is continually evolving, so should legislation. Without the implementation of legislation I have explored, we risk another generation of young people harmed due to inaction.
