‘Age verification on porn sites will help your children stay safe, but loop holes need closing’

The Children’s Commission’s survey found that the average age at which children first see pornography is 13. Girls and boys are just as likely as one another to see pornography at this age. The UK Online Safety Bill is in the government’s words, an attempt to make the UK “the safest place in the world to be online” by introducing a range of obligations for how large tech firms should design, operate, and moderate their platforms. 

The UK government recently announced that clauses in the Online Safety Bill requiring websites to verify the age of users accessing pornography will be strengthened. We are very grateful to ministers for taking this important step, which will be welcome news to parents across the four nations of the UK.

New amendments to the legislation will see services that publish or allow pornography on their sites held to a new “higher standard” on the age verification or age estimation tools they use. Sites will have to ensure that these are “highly effective” in establishing whether people attempting to access their site are over 18. New measures will also hold tech executives personally responsible for keeping children safe – significantly raising the stakes when it comes to platforms upholding a duty of care.

The move follows a long-running campaign by CARE, which drafted amendments and worked with other charities including Barnardo’s and CEASE to have them accepted by the government. For many years now, CARE has been calling for much tougher online safeguards, based on very well-evidenced concerns about the devastating impact of pornography on our children and young people. Now that ministers have ordered a higher standard in age checks, we are within touching distance of the legislative safeguards Britain’s children need.