Watching porn online in UK will soon require age checks as per new Digital Economy Bill

Watching porn online in the UK mainly for underage viewers is going to get tough as the government is set to implement age-based restrictions. In a bid to protect children from online harassment and cybercrime, the UK government's Digital Economy Bill will compel pornographic sites to verify that users are over 18.

The regulations have been discussed in the past and mulled over but the mention of the bill in the Queen's recent speech indicates the government is quite determined to go through with the checks. So far, no details have emerged on how this will happen but some reports say credentials such as one's mobile phone operator, Post Office identity proof, NHS identity proof or the Department for Work and Pensions number can be asked from the potential viewer.

The real issue, however, will arise when it comes to free pornographic content being widely available on sites like PornHub, which don't require any registrations. The government has in the past mulled filtering and blocking these sites altogether on various networks but nothing has come through yet.

Other than this, the Digital Economy Bill will also address the issue of spam emails and nuisance calls from telemarketers and potential cyber-criminals. The government will also undertake some telecom related reforms under the bill like development of fast broadband and mobile networks and simplifying the way the government uses data to deliver public services. It also plans to introduce a Universal Service Obligation for broadband, with minimum speeds of at least 10Mbps.