UK Government Porn Ban To Come Into Effect On 15 July

The UK Government's ban on watching pornography without prior age verification will come into effect as of 15 July.

After that date, anyone wishing to access porn sites in the United Kingdom will have to have verified their age using a legitimate form of identification such as a credit card, driving licence, or passport.

This is a measure that has been in the works for a while now and is aimed at making porn more difficult for children to access.

As of the July date, the UK will be the world's first country to introduce such a system and to require 'robust age-verification checks on users' to be performed by all sites.

The UK Government's Minister for Digital and Creative Industries, Margot James said: "Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online. The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we've taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content.

"We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this."

The rules will be enforced by the British Board of Film Classification, which will offer all sites a period of time to adjust to the new systems before the 15 July cut-off point.

The Chief Executive of the BBFC, David Austin, said: "The introduction of age-verification to restrict access to commercial pornographic websites to adults is a ground breaking child protection measure.

"Age-verification will help prevent children from accessing pornographic content online and means the UK is leading the way in internet safety.

"On entry into force, consumers will be able to identify that an age-verification provider has met rigorous security and data checks if they carry the BBFC's new green 'AV' symbol."

Most sites are thought to be looking at using a system called AgeID. AgeID allows users to provide identification only once, but then access several of the world's largest porn sites using that one identification.

AgeID spokesperson James Clark recently explained to the Metro: "When a user first visits a site protected by AgeID, a landing page will appear with a prompt for the user to verify their age before they can access the site.

"Each website will create their own non-pornographic landing page for this purpose.

"It is a one-time verification, with a simple single sign-on for future access. If a user verifies on one AgeID protected site, they will not need to perform this verification again on any other site carrying AgeID."