LONDON — U.K. Minister Margot James told members of Parliament today that the government, once again, must delay age verification for adult content.
James, according to reports, said that AV in the U.K. should be in force by mid April.
Ministers earlier insisted that age checks would be up and running by the end of the year, but final legislation will only arrive in the House of Commons next month at the earliest, she said.
“We can expect [AV] to be in force by Easter of next year, and I make that timetable through the knowledge we have laid the necessary secondary legislation before Parliament,” James told a panel with Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee. “I am hopeful of getting a slot to debate it before the end of the year.
“We have always said that we will permit the industry three months of getting up to speed with the practicalities and delivering the age verification that they will be required by law to deliver. We have also had to establish with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which has become the regulator, and they have had to consult on the methods of age verification.
“So, it has taken longer than I would have liked but I would balance by a confidence that we have got it right.”
Once mandatory AV is up and running, adult websites will have to provide their own verification software, which will then have to meet standards and checks carried out by the BBFC.
James — Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries — told the panel that the issues of social media had taken longer than hoped. She said a deadline to speed up the removal of “harmful content” on social media is among the legislative measures being considered by the government in a bid to protect young people.
James warned there are some “gray areas” of what is deemed illegal content and what is not, which it is expected to be addressed in a white paper this winter.
