UK Porn Fans Brace For Possible Censorship Under New Law

Fans of online porn in the United Kingdom are just over two months away from what could be a jolting change in the way they consume adult entertainment on the internet, as a new set of laws known collectively as the Digital Economy Act 2018 take effect in April. 

But critics of the new porn regulations say that the government is rushing to put the laws into effect without fully considering privacy and even national security risks posed by the laws.

Last month, AVN.com reported on findings that revealed how the new law could be used by the U.K. government to assemble a database of porn fans and their viewing habits like something right out of George Orwell. 

But not only could that data be misused by the government to violate citizens’ privacy, the information could also be wide open for hackers, many of them working for hostile foreign powers such as China, North Korea or Russia, who could steal and “weaponize” the data.

As one expert noted, agents of those government could then, in theory, compile data on politicians and other public figures, either using it for blackmail, or releasing it online through a site such as Wikileaks, as an act of digital sabotage.

Under the new law, porn sites are required to obtain proof that users are, in fact, 18 years old before granting access to any site. That means that porn fans will need to give up details of their personal identity and even credit card information—even for sites that don’t require payment—and those intimate details would become accessible to the government, in the form of the British Board of Film Censorship, which will serve as the policing agency for online porn under the new law.

“The BBFC will struggle to ensure that Age Verification is safe, secure and anonymous,” Jim Killock, executive director of the pro-privacy Open Rights Group, told Britain’s Metro newspaper. “They are powerless to ensure people’s privacy.”

In addition to concerns about the government or foreign governments possibly violating user privacy, a corporate near-monopoly on age-verification systems also poses a threat, Killock said.

The law imposes a penalty of up to £250,000—or about $345,000 in U.S. cash—for porn sites that fail to use age verification systems, and allows the government to block any such sites. But Killock worries that the new law will lead to massive government censorship of porn sites.

“While BBFC say they will only block a few large sites that don’t use AV, there are tens of thousands of porn sites.” Killock says. “Once MPs work out that AV is failing to make porn inaccessible, some will demand that more and more sites are blocked. BBFC will be pushed to block ever larger numbers of websites.”