The plans to implement a countrywide Age Verification system for online Pornography have been abandoned by the government. This was first proposed in 2015 and after years of technical troubles and issues surrounding privacy, the government has decided to not follow through. 

In April 2019, the UK government announced a mandatory age verification system for online pornography. These new regulations came as part of the Digital Economy Act and were supposed to be implemented on July 25, 2019. What this meant was that after July 15, it would be compulsory for the commercial providers of online pornography to carry out robust age verification checks on the users. This was announced to make sure that the children didn’t access adult content. It was also announced that websites who would refuse to follow through would be blocked by UK internet service providers. 

So what happened? 

Back in June, it was announced that the regulations would be further delayed by six months because of administrative oversight. This announcement comes after facing a lot of technical troubles and concerns from privacy campaigners. The government faced a number of difficulties in implementing the policy. The policy would have required all the online pornography providers to make sure that their users were over 18. This would have been done by either issuing a “porn pass” for age verification from a newsagent or checking of credit cards. 

It was up to the individual porn website to implement the technology that would have verified the ages of people and determined if they were old enough to view the material. It was the British Board of Film Classification (BFCC)’s responsibility to monitor the websites and to check whether they had installed ways for people to verify their ages.   

What is the Importance of Age Verification? 

As more and more of our businesses take place online, age-restricted industries like gambling, pornography, alcohol, cannabis, etc. have to be extra careful about their customers. It falls on the responsibility of the retailers to be cautious of who they are selling it to. This is why age verification is important, especially for age-restricted business. The result of age-verification is a safer and more secure online environment for the children. 

How is it Done? 

The process of age verification combines advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning to verify the person’s age. With such advanced technology, it becomes almost impossible for minors to use fake IDs or their parents’ IDs to access age-restricted websites and businesses. The system works by first capturing the ID documents and then extracting the data through OCR technology. The date and document are then verified for their authenticity in real-time. 

What is the future of age verification? 

With the increase in the rise of technology, there has been an increase in cyber and digital fraud. In the last decade or so, billions of dollars have been lost due to identity theft fraud and data breaches. Moreover, there is a rising concern for the protection of minors on online platforms. All of these call for stricter and more rigorous checks on customer Age and Document Verification. 

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