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Pornhub Owner May Become the UK's Gatekeeper of Online Porn (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Yahoo News: Mindgeek may be the most powerful company that you've never heard of, or at least, a company you'll claim never to have heard about in polite company. It's the conglomerate that owns some of the world's most visited porn sites, including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn. Far from simply being a popular and free way for people to consume adult content, it may soon have a powerful political role in the UK that will ensure its dominance for decades to come. That's because, within the next year, Mindgeek may become the principal gatekeeper between the country's internet users and their porn. In April, the UK passed the Digital Economy Act 2017, legislation that mandated that any website showing adult content must verify the ages of its visitors. It was pushed through in response to concerns that children were being corrupted by easy access to and exposure to adult content at an early age. Section 15(1) of the bill requires that "pornographic material" not be published online, on a "commercial basis," unless it is "not normally accessible by those under 18." The bill has several flaws, not least the number of vague proposals it contains, and the ad hoc definition of what pornography actually is. Section 17 of the same act outlined the creation of an "age-verification regulator," the digital equivalent of a bouncer standing between you and your porn. This gatekeeper will have the right, and duty, to demand you show proof of age, or else refuse you access. In addition, the body will be able to impose fines and enforcement notices on those who either neglect or circumvent the policy. [...] The Open Rights Group believes that the BBFC will then hand over the actual mechanisms of the age verification platform to a third party in the private sector. Mindgeek has had several conversations with officials and is currently pushing its own age verification platform, AgeID. If selected, this platform could become the principal wall between Britons and their pornography -- giving Mindgeek enormous power in the market.
If that is what they are worried about, why have they not banned religious web sites; IMHO those are far more damaging than porn: they claim to present truth (without much evidence), then say that a bunch of people are bad: those of other religions (or none), gays, divorcees, ...; discourage free or rational thought, condemn evolution and generally denounce any sex out side marriage, ...
Many kids have their minds screwed up by religion.
Porn is inherently a private thing that most people would tend to keep from their SO. It's human nature. So why in world would anyone participate in a program that verifies their identity, age, and arguably other PII so that there is now verifiable proof of said private activity?? This will just drive porn further underground and into illicit sources or even the dark web.