Alternatively, platforms may be relying on less intrusive methods to conduct age assurance, such as behavioural indicators; but depending on the level of reliability and fairness of these methods, they may not always pass Ofcom’s threshold for being highly effective. From today, they will have to pass age verification checks to access all UK porn sites. The legislation is part of the Online Safety Act, designed to protect children from seeing harmful material online. Pornography platforms in particular are required to implement HEAA to prevent children accessing the entire site.

MPs said there is “compelling evidence that relationships and sex education is failing young people” and the benefits of condom use “must be a key part of the curriculum”. If you believe that keeping children safe online should be a shared responsibility, now is the time to make your voice heard. “Crucially, they have also acted on our concerns and closed the ‘Only Fans loophole’ that would have let some of the riskiest sites off the hook despite allowing children access to extremely damaging material. This legislation, which has achieved mixed support from parliamentarians thus far, would introduce a range of measures to curb “harmful” content online. Care has campaigned for age checks for a number of years and welcomed news earlier this year that they would feature in the government’s Online Safety Bill. In the UK, new draft guidance from Ofcom intends to make it much harder for under-18s to access pornography websites, in keeping with the requirements of the new Online Safety Act.

In the same survey, 79.5 per cent of people said ‘there should be an age limit of 18 years for access to online pornography’. The UK government porno online has confirmed that it is trying again to introduce ‘porn-block’ – a controversial internet age verification system – as part of attempts to keep under-18s away from porn sites. She was responding to a new study from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

• A report published by the government’s Joint Committee on the draft Online Safety Bill in December recommended​ that stricter age-verification rules for all porn sites should be added to the bill.
• Some, such as depictions of female ejaculation and menstruation, work to break taboos that display limited views of what female sexuality should be.
• Software is freely available and already widely used, such as Tor Browser, that would remove the need to register on a central database.
• In some places, what would be considered legal pornography in the US is outright banned, and accessing it could lead to complications with law enforcement.
• Most young people accessed porn “unintentionally” the first time, the BBFC states.

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And perhaps most troublingly, it is seen as a natural part of sexual freedom, whilst in fact being one of its biggest threats. The porn industry is focussed on money, not sex, and is making a lot of it – somewhere between $35 billion and $97 billion a year. Porn doesn’t have to be visual – sometimes all you need is some saucy audio to get you off, and that’s where Dipsea comes in. Working purely through sound, the app has hundreds sex stories for you to pick from, so you can hear the build up between those involved and the sound of them having sex. There are also stories that centre you as the protagonist (hello), in the ‘Him + You’ and ‘Her + You’ series.

• From today, they will have to pass age verification checks to access all UK porn sites.
• Beyond societal shame, there’s a reason why pornographic websites have a spotty reputation.
• What the research does suggest is that, contrary to popular belief, young people are not zombified viewers and instead critically engage with the media they access.
• ISPs also provide visibility across all devices on a home network, filling the gaps left by platform protections.
• Clients will often label it as an addiction or feeling like an addictive cycle of behaviour, this allows us to avoid making a judgement,” she added.

UK – The Online Safety Act 2023 – the landscape two years on

“Where appropriate, in the most serious cases, we can seek a court order for business disruption measures, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring internet service providers to block access to a site in the UK.” It also does not work for social media websites and so it is still entirely possible for those under the age of 18 to use Snapchat, facebook, twitter, instagram etc to encounter pornographic material whilst browsing different profiles. Any individuals wishing to access legal adult pornographic websites after the porn ban comes into place will need to provide their bank details or purchase a card in a shop to gain access to it. A recent analysis found that 37% of free online porn videos contained violence towards women, and another study asking young people what they saw in porn found that 70% frequently saw men being dominant. Around 36% frequently saw women being called names and slurs and 35% frequently saw ‘consensual’ violence towards them. In this guest blog, Elly discusses how the porn industry harnesses tech to manipulate human sexuality, and offers her thoughts on how parents can protect their children and build their resilience.

Government strengthens Online Safety Act to crack down on revenge porn

“Some people will seek out more extreme images to achieve greater sexual gratification,” she said. Advice for parents, carers, professionals, and survivors, providing guidance on understanding key issues, responding to challenges, keeping children safe, maintaining wellbeing and where to find additional support. The best test is to stop using porn for a period of time, say at least a month, and see what happens. You may lose all interest in sex for a while (called ‘flat-lining’), but don’t panic and return to porn.

The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers. Collectively, the websites had over nine million unique monthly UK visitors, Ofcom said. Sex in porn is not a reflection of real life sexual experiences and does not show a variety of real life body types.

The best sex education you can give your son (or daughter) is to talk to them about the porn they will see, either from their own phone, or if you have put parental filters on, on those of their friends. They need to understand that the porn videos they see are not the kind of real sex that usually occurs between loving partners. There is no intimacy, no discussion of consent, and the most repeated behaviours demonstrated often objectify the receiver of the sexual act, most commonly young women and young men. Porn teaches that women and young men want to be ejaculated all over their bodies and/or faces, that they want to have every orifice filled all at the same time, and that whatever is done to them, they are happy and willing recipients. There is no understanding that these are choreographed events, and there is also no understanding that many are coerced into looking ‘happy’.