Ofcom has launched investigations into dozens of sites hosting adult content to determine the level of compliance with recently enforced age verification requirements.
Last week the section of the Online Safety Act requiring the hosts of adult-oriented content to enact strict age checks came into force. Among the primary targets for this were pornographic sites.
Ofcom has now launched investigations into 34 pornographic sites to determine if new requirements have been appropriately put into place.
The regulator is also investigating a number of other sites said to host content inappropriate for children, notably including forum service 4chan.
“This enforcement goes to the very heart of what the Online Safety Act is here to do – protecting children from pornographic material,” said Technology Secretary Peter Kyle.
“No one in their right mind would think it appropriate for a child to walk into a shop and freely buy a top shelf magazine – so why should we allow them to freely wander on to a website offering the same – if not more disturbing – age-inappropriate content.
Since the age restriction rules came into force, the government has faced criticism that it is exerting too great a level of control over access to the internet, with ID checks and facial age-estimation scans being called burdensome at best and a violation of privacy at worst.
“These laws have nothing to do with censorship or policing adults seeking to access legal content,” Kyle said.
“Those who suggest otherwise are playing politics with child safety and have no practical alternatives for protecting our children from content they should never see – content that can cause lasting, even fatal, damage.”
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