LONDON — The House of Commons today agreed on final regulations necessary to introduce age verification for adult websites.
As part of the U.K.’s Digital Economy Act, commercial adult sites will be forced to show they are verifying users are over 18. Failure to do so could block companies from taking credit card payments or even see their sites blocked by ISPs in the U.K.
Today, Commons voted affirmatively on three statutory bills today that spell out commercial online porn regulations, BBFC guidance on service providers and BBFC guidance on AV solutions.
Margot James, a member of Parliament who is minister of the state Department for Culture, Media and Sport, spoke to the House of Commons on the measures that are set to go into effect before Easter.
James noted to Commons that the Secretary of State will be reporting back on the impact of AV within 12 to 18 months once the law is implemented and that a white paper on the scope of the new regs will be available in the early part of the new year.
She also said that the BBFC, known formally as the British Board of Film Classification, has a “century’s worth” of experience in overseeing film content and an adequate amount of resources to maintain enforcement.
James said that the new AV law “is not a total solution, and it is not foolproof. But it is a significant step forward” to protect children from exposure to pornography.
In the past two years, a handful of age-verification firms, such as AVSecure, AgeID and others, have started up to offer solutions as third parties to verify users’ ages.
Stuart Lawley, AVSecure’s CEO, told XBIZ that his company is pleased “that finally we have clarity on the process and certainty of the introduction timetable of AV.”
Lawley said that with the U.K. becoming the first country to introduce AV “many countries will follow and that in due course, robust, almost seamless, free age verification will become the industry standard not only in countries mandating it but also in other jurisdictions whereby the industry may choose.”
“Once they have seen how simple and frictionless AV can be, to voluntarily introduce AV as standard as good practice and to ward off unwelcome and perhaps unwieldy legislation affecting their businesses later,” Lawley said. “Responsible self-regulation has always been key to this."
He noted that AV’s roll out will be a gradual process and the U.K. will prove a sizable test bed for the various alternatives.
“We, of course, feel that the anonymous, credentialed token-based blockchain approach we are pioneering will satisfy all stakeholders whether their concerns are speed, cost, privacy or ease of use,” Lawley said.
“As a company not operating any adult sites nor with any affiliations to any providers or website operators, we feel AVSecure is ideally positioned to be the worldwide trusted market leader in the AV space and have structured our offering for global operation in due course."
AVSecure will be hosting a workshop at the 2019 XBIZ Show on Tuesday, Jan. 15, from 2-2:50 p.m.
