Brits will have to use face ID to access Pornhub and OnlyFans in new crackdown coming into effect in just a few months
PORN watchers in the UK will have to use face ID to access Pornhub and Onlyfans in a few months, it has been announced.
The sites are some of the most popular for accessing the X-rated material, but an Ofcom crackdown on age verification will soon hit Brits.
Ofcom has announced the news, with a hard deadline set for July for the sites to use this technology.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom‘s chief executive, said: “For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services.
“Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid.
“That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content.
“Today, this starts to change.”
Examples of age verification tools include photo ID matching, facial age estimation or credit card checks.
In even stricter measures, under the Online Safety Act, all social media and search services are required to carry out a children’s access assessment.
This is to determine if their site is likely to be accessed by children.
Ofcom has given platforms until April 16 to complete this.
Ofcom said it will then publish codes of practice for sites that are likely to be accessed by children.
This will set out how they can implement measures to keep younger users safe.
These checks will be required, regardless of the type of site, if it allows pornography.
Melanie continued: “Services which host their own pornography must start to introduce age checks immediately, while other user-to-user services – including social media – which allow pornography and certain other types of content harmful to children will have to follow suit by July at the latest.
“We’ll be monitoring the response from industry closely.
“Those companies that fail to meet these new requirements can expect to face enforcement action from Ofcom.”
Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at Verifymy, said: “Ofcom‘s announcement today is a pivotal moment in the fight to make the internet a safer place, particularly for children.
“The regulator’s long-awaited guidance on age assurance means adult content providers now have the clarity they need to get their houses in order and put in place robust and reliable methods to keep explicit material well away from underage users.”
According to Statista, in 2022, 10 per cent of respondents to a survey on adult content consumption reported they were between 12 and 13 years old when they first accessed this type of content online.
A further 16 per cent said they were between the ages of 14 and 15 when they first accessed the lurid material online.
Overall, less than half of people who took part in the survey, 45 per cent, said that they were 18 or over when they first saw porn on the internet.
The popularity of Onlyfans has boomed in recent years, with Brit content creators Bonnie Blue and Liliy Phillips sparking intense controversy for their sex stunts.
Both women have made headlines for their controversial sex challenges that they would then sell the footage of on the members-only site.
These include Phillips sleeping with 100 men in 24 hours.
Signs you are addicted to porn
There is no definitive or formal definition of ‘porn addiction’.
It is not a clinical diagnosis and is given only a mention in the World Health Organisation’s ‘compulsive sexual behaviour disorder’ description.
Classification of what constitutes an addiction to porn addiction has been contested.
Therefore, experts prefer not to use an ‘hours-per-day threshold’ to diagnose porn addiction.
They say consumption is considered problematic if it interferes with daily life.
Psychotherapist Dr Paula Hall, who set up The Laurel Centre for sex and porn addiction, says: “The International Classification of Diseases document [maintained by the World Health Organization] says it needs to have caused significant distress in your life for at least six months.
“If it’s fun and not causing any problems in your life, it’s probably not an addiction.
“But for someone who has developed an addiction, it’s not fun any more.
“People know in their heart of hearts, ‘I need to get a grip, and I can’t’. That’s when it has become a problem.”
On the NHS page ‘Can you become addicted to sex?’ it says sex addiction is “any sexual activity that feels ‘out of control’.”
Some say those with porn addiction neglect self-care and responsibilities, socially withdraw, potentially engage in illegal activity or other addictions and live a ‘double life’, seemingly fine to others.
Other issues include porn-related erectile dysfunction or a general lack of sexual desire in real relationships.