Porn sites to introduce strict age checks within weeks
Pornhub, the world's biggest pornography site, has agreed to introduce age verification checks in the UK within weeks in a bid to block children from accessing adult videos.
Aylo, the website's parent company, confirmed it would introduce 'government-approved age assurance' technology on to its websites by July 25.
On Thursday, Ofcom said more than a dozen major porn sites had agreed to implement the checks. The regulator has demanded sites introduce 'highly effective' age checks.
Some of the possible measures could include asking for photo ID or using a smartphone app to estimate age. Previous checks, like tick-box-style age declarations, will no longer be allowed.
Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's group director of online safety, said: 'For too long, children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online.
'Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.'
Ofcom said it had found that 8pc of children aged between eight and 14 visited a porn site each month. Around 3pc of eight to nine-year-olds reported visiting pornography sites.
It found that 19pc of boys aged 13 to 14 used pornography sites, compared to 11pc of girls the same age.
Ofcom has already ordered online pornography publishers to introduce age checks, but the new checks will also apply to sites allowing self-published adult content and social media.
It comes after Aylo blocked access to Pornhub in France and several US states over what the Canadian business claimed were overly intrusive or risky age checks demanded by politicians.
The Pornhub owner said it had 'publicly called for effective and enforceable age assurance solutions that protect minors online, while ensuring the safety and privacy of all users'.
It said: 'The United Kingdom is the first country to present these same priorities demonstrably. Our conversations with Ofcom have been constructive and solution-focused.'
Aylo did not say what type of checks it would introduce next month.
It had said that checks proposed in France, which would have required an ID or credit card, represented a privacy risk. It blocked access to the site in the country earlier this month, although Pornhub returned to the country last week after a court suspended new rules on age verification.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Canadian businesses seek certainty in US tariff war
Deal or no deal, what Wes Love wants is Toronto-area business, Taurus Craco, imports machinery from overseas and distributes it across North America, mainly to the United President Donald Trump's shifting tariffs on Canadian products have left him, like many independent business owners, unable to plan for the future."What has been creating indecision in the market is people don't know which way this is going to go," Mr Love told the BBC in June. "And in small businesses, indecision is killer." Taurus Craco was hit hard by the tariffs earlier this year when it was forced to shell out nearly C$35,000 ($25,500, £18,700) because a shipment to the US crossed the border a few minutes after one deadline."It is totally punitive. From a small business perspective, that's more than the cost that we spend on hydro and gas for the entire year," he though Trump paused that tariff a few hours later, Taurus Craco still had to pay. Refusing would mean no longer being allowed to transport its products into the US, Mr Love said."It's like dealing with the mob," he is in a tit-for-tat tariff war with its largest trading partner, faciing a series of levies, in particular on metals and auto. Since taking office in January, Trump has announced a series of import taxes on goods from other countries - arguing they will boost American manufacturing and protect jobs. The ensuing uncertainty has hit Canada's economy and intense talks between the two countries hit a snag on Friday. Prime Minister Mark Carney has called Trump's tariffs "unjust", and said while campaigning for the April election that the "old relationship" with the US is "over". Shortly after winning that election, the prime minister visited Washington DC, taking a more conciliatory message to the White House to launch talks on a new trade and security deal. A 16 July deadline since has been set to hash out that deal, and President Trump said at the recent G7 summit that he was optimistic the two countries could "work something out" on on Friday, Trump said he was cutting trade talks over Canada's digital services tax. "We are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," he wrote on social has threatened to impose another round of retaliatory tariffs on the US if the talks aren't successful. Mr Love welcomes any prospect of a deal."Give us a set of rules and leave them alone and let us operate within those rules," he said."It's like sport, right? Everybody goes onto the field and you play to a set of rules, but you don't change the rules in the middle of the game." Trade, a sudden exit, Middle East conflict - five takeaways from G7'A stab in the back' - car workers in Canada hit out at US over tariffsThe reality behind Trump's incredible investment claimsWhat tariffs has Trump announced and why? Gaphel Kongtsa, international policy director at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said businesses are hopeful an agreement will bring stability. Thus far, they have had to navigate a very fluid landscape, he said, "where seemingly things get increased or decreased or added on without very much clear indication as to why".Canada is hugely reliant on trade with the US, with 75% of its exports heading south, according to Statistics economy has slowed significantly in the first quarter of 2025 as a result of trade war and the ensuing uncertainty - growing only 0.8% between 1 January and 31 March, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).It shrank 0.1% over a month in April. A timeline of the tariffs shows what a whirlwind few months it has 1 February, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on most Canadian imports, then suspended them for a month days later. They were re-imposed when that deadline expired, only to be again delayed. Not long after, he granted an exemption on all goods that were compliant with the current North American free trade deal, known as the USMCA. Then in March, the US imposed a global 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminium as well as on imported vehicles. This month, Trump raised the metals tariff to 50%. The manufacturing sector has been in the spotlight when it comes to the tariffs, but the service sector also is affected by the uncertainty, if not by the levies directly. Sam Gupta is the founder and CEO at ElevatIQ, a technology and management consultancy that operates out of Buffalo, New York, and in Gupta said most people don't think about the service sector during a period of uncertainty, calling it the "unloved stepchild" of the economy."The attention goes to all the manufacturing companies and the companies that are directly impacted by the supply chain," he said. Still, services - which encompass everything from finance to tourism - make up a huge proportion of Canada's economy, accounting for the vast majority of its exporters have not been hit as hard as manufacturing, but their outlook and confidence in the market is at the lowest level in years, according to data from the Canadian Chamber of while Ottawa has implemented several measures to provide relief to companies hit by the tariffs - including from funds raised by counter tariffs - the service sector has not received any compensation."We are not even in the conversation," Mr Gupta said. "We don't exist."He said his business is not financially struggling at the moment, but noted that inquiries for his firm's services were "down by 50%". "As far as our understanding goes, not a lot of businesses are thinking about these longterm investments right now. It just, they just are not in the mindset," he said."The biggest fear that we all have right now is, I don't know how long this is going to go. If it is going to be six months, a year, 18 months, we can still survive. But let's say this goes on for like two years, three years then oh, my goodness, it will be, really, really hard."This has been the toughest period for the industry in his 20-year career, as the sector faces a combination of challenges, he said. Mr Gupta recalled how easy it was for him to get a well-paying job early in his career. "Even when I was graduating, we were getting paid like crazy. And we were so arrogant that we would not even pick up calls from recruiters," he said."But now with AI, with tariffs, the economy, everything, everybody that I know is struggling," he said. Statistics Canada reports that 56% of all businesses that export to the US have taken measures to mitigate the impact of than 30% have delayed major investments and expenditures, while 25% sought alternative customers outside the Bank of Canada said on Wednesday that exports to the US dropped by more than 15% in April. Steel and aluminium exports were down by 25% and 11%, and the export of vehicles had fallen by 25%.But despite everything, Mr Love remains said businesses can navigate the challenges as long as the US does not keep changing its trade policy."We're entrepreneurs. We are full of piss and vinegar, as they would say," he said."And so we are doing everything that we possibly can to keep fighting. And I think we will be successful; we just need to know what the ground rules are."
NBC News
8 hours ago
- NBC News
Trump terminates trade talks with Canada
President Donald Trump said Friday that he had terminated trade discussions with Canada, citing an incoming Canadian tax on digital service providers including ones based in the U.S.. In a post on Truth Social, Trump referred to Canada as "a very difficult country to trade with" and said that its levy on tech firms — the first payment for which is due Monday — "is a direct and blatant attack on our Country." "Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," he said. "We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period." Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner.
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
US Supreme Court upholds Texas law requiring ID verification for porn sites
The US Supreme Court has upheld a Texas law that requires users accessing pornography sites to verify their age using a government ID or a face 2023 law was challenged by PornHub and other sites that argued the requirement violated constitutional rights to free speech by placing a burden on adults who want to access that has defended the law, saying it was created to limit harm to minors. More than a dozen other states have passed similar the justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines in a decision released on Friday. "The power to require age verification is within a State's authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content," Justice Clarence Thomas, who authored the opinion, a two-hour hearing in January, the justices had appeared to agree with Texas that some form of safeguards should be in place to protect minors, but they also expressed concern about trampling on free speech rights. Lawyers for the pornography websites in the case primarily relied on legal precedent in their arguments. They pointed to a 2004 Supreme Court decision, which ruled against an attempt to criminalise content on the internet that may be harmful to also argued that asking users to submit identifying information may inadvertently bar adults from accessing their websites, effectively impeding on their First Amendment rights."Adults who submit, for example, a 'government ID' over the Internet to 'affirmatively identify themselves' understand that they are thereby exposing themselves to 'inadvertent disclosures, leaks, or hacks,'" the adult film industry argued in their legal also expressed concern about whether the law could be used to restrict other kinds of content intended for lawyers, meanwhile, leaned on another legal precedent: a 1968 Supreme Court decision that upheld a New York law barring the sale of pornographic magazines to those who are lawyers argued that the principles of that law have not changed "just because obscenity has moved online". This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
