The U. A public consultation on the proposed rule will take place between now and April 12, and comes after the government sought the opinion and advice of Internet providers, search companies, charities, and other affected businesses.
The proposal states a new legal requirement will be put into place, where age verification controls must be enforced by all online adult content providers accessible in the U. Additionally, a new regulatory framework will also be created.
The law will include the ability to impose sanctions on any sites not complying with the new rules. In the event of finding a site without age verification, the proposal wants to give businesses whose services are used by the sites โ including payments and advertising โ the ability to withdraw in the event of non-compliance.
This is how the U. The idea is, the regulator will have sites not complying flagged up with payment and advertising companies, who will stop doing business with the sites, thereby cutting off revenue. The logic, according to the senior communications officer at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport who spoke with Digital Trends, is that many adult sites use free content to encourage people to pay for premium access.
Removing the ability to receive payments by non-complying sites will encourage them to add in an age verification system. No ads, no income. What age verification system will sites need to implement? This has yet to be determined, but there are several methods being discussed, including the trusty credit card option, and a more controversial plan that will use electoral roll data, or the information tied to a phone provider.
