Brits May Be Forced to Take Selfies Before Watching Porn

Adult websites could compel British citizens to take a selfie to verify their age before watching pornography under new rules to protect children.

UK’s telecom regulatory agency Ofcom said websites could use “facial age estimation” systems to confirm they are adults before accessing porn.

“Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change,” said Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive.

“Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded,” she added.

Proponents claim the selfie framework is more privacy friendly because it doesn’t require personal IDs or information.

From The Telegraph:

The technology is seen by some as a more privacy-friendly alternative to uploading personal IDs or credit cards because it does not require personal information to be entered.

Ofcom says that children first see online pornography at an average age of 13 and a quarter see it by the age of 11.

Age estimation systems are already used by social media companies like Instagram to check people’s ages and use artificial intelligence to guess a person’s age based on thousands of pictures that the system has been trained on.

Yoti, one technology provider that is used by Instagram and the adult site OnlyFans, says it deletes images as soon as they are checked.

The shame attached to a policy of taking a selfie to watch hardcore pornography may not just prevent children accessing porn, but it may deter adults too.

Age verification laws have also been introduced in America in recent months, but the rules have been met with legal challenges in numerous states.