Nearly one in 10 children aged eight to 14 have watched online pornography, according to the UK’s communications watchdog, as most adult content providers gear up to adopt strongerage checksahead of a 25 July deadline.
Ofcom published research showing that 8% of children aged eight to 14 in the UK had visited an online pornography site or app over a month-long period. Boys aged 13 to 14 were the most likely viewers, with two out of 10 visiting adult sites.
Ofcom said the total number of under-18s visiting such sites would have been “higher still” if older teenagers had been included.
The watchdog released the data before a 25 July deadline for pornography sites and apps that allow pornography – including social media platforms as well as dedicated providers – to put in place “highly effective” age-checking measures to prevent under-18s from accessing adult material.
Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s group director of online safety, saidchildren hade been “only a click away from pornography” for too long.
He added: “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 major providers including Pornhub – the UK’s most popular pornography site – Stripchat and YouPorn had agreed to implement the stronger measures as part of the Online Safety Act (OSA). Platforms that do not comply with the measures face a range of punishments, from being fined 10% of global turnover to being blocked in the UK.
Age assurance methods supported by Ofcom include: facial age estimation, where technology assesses a person’s likely age through a live photo or video; checking a person’s age via their credit card provider, bank or mobile phone network operator; photo ID matching, where a passport or similar ID is checked against a selfie; or a “digital identity wallet” that contains proof of age.
Ofcom said “just ticking a box to say you’re over 18 will no longer be enough”. The regulator added that eight out of 10 adults supported using age checks on pornographic sites as a means of protecting children.
Earlier this month, Ofcomsaid it had launched a string of investigations into 4chan, a pornography site operator, and several filesharing platforms over suspected failures to protect children, after it received complaints about illegal activity and potential sharing of child abuse images.
It said none of the services had responded to its legal information requests.
Ofcom said all the measures adopted by pornography providers must not exclude adults from accessing legal content and should protect their privacy. Age assurance measures deployed by adult content platforms are subject to UK GDPR – the country’s data protection regulation – which is overseen by the data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Tim Cairns, online safety policy lead at Care, a prominent campaigner for stronger age-checking measures, said age-gating for pornography was “long overdue”. He added: “Porn use is linked to sexual harassment in schools and violent sexual crime. Studies also demonstrate its harmful impact on relationships and mental health. It is vital that Ofcom gets this right.”
Rani Govender, the policy manager for child safety online at child safety charity NSPCC, said: “It is time tech companies take responsibility for ensuring children have safe, age-appropriate experiences online and we welcome the progress that Ofcom are making in this space.”