UK Ofcom proposes new age-check guidance for porn sites

The UK’s Office of Communication (Ofcom) Regulator published a new check-age guidance ‘for service providers that display or publish pornographic content on their websites to help them comply with their regulatory duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’).’

The guidance suggests incorporating AI-based technology among its strategies to safeguard children from online pornography. This technology would verify users’ ages to ensure compliance with the UK law, which sets the minimum age for accessing such content at 18. Namely, Ofcom proposes using AI-based facial age estimation to analyse the users’ features, photo ID matching, credit card checks, and open banking, where users can authorize their bank to share information with adult sites, verifying they are over 18.

Why does it matter?

While the proposed measures aim to enhance child safety online, some critics, including the Institute of Economic Affairs, express concerns about mandatory age verification. Privacy issues and the potential for data breaches are among the key apprehensions raised. Ofcom asserts that stricter standards are necessary, signaling that weaker methods like self-declaration of age and disclaimers would no longer meet the outlined criteria.