“Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren’t suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling,” Ofcom said. “Now, children will be better protected from online material that’s not appropriate for them, while adults’ rights to access legal content are preserved. We expect other companies to follow suit, or face enforcement if they fail to act.”
Ofcom said online platforms that fall under the law “must use highly effective age assurance to identify which users are children, to protect them from harmful material, while preserving adults’ rights to access legal content. That may involve preventing children from accessing the entire site or app, or only some parts or kinds of content.”
Ofcom Group Director for Online Safety Oliver Griffiths recently told the Daily Star that “if you’re a dedicated teenager, you’re probably going to be able to find ways to get [around this] in the same way as people manage to find their way in the pub to buy alcohol at under 18.” But he indicated that the law should prevent many kids from “stumbling across porn,” and that “this is very much a first step.”
In the US, individual states have been imposing age laws on porn websites. The US Supreme Court recently upheld a Texas law that requires age verification on porn sites, finding that the state’s age-gating law doesn’t violate the First Amendment. A dissent written by Justice Elena Kagan described the law’s ID requirement as a deterrent to exercising one’s First Amendment rights, saying that “Texas’s law defines speech by content and tells people entitled to view that speech that they must incur a cost to do so.”
While the Texas law applies to websites in which more than one-third of the content is sexual material, the UK law’s age provisions apply more broadly to social media websites. Reddit’s announcement of its UK restrictions said the company expects it will have to verify user ages in other countries.
“As laws change, we may need to collect and/or verify age in places other than the UK,” Reddit said. “Accordingly, we are also introducing globally an option for you to provide your birthdate to optimize your Reddit experience, for example to help ensure that content and ads are age-appropriate. This is optional, and you won’t be required to provide it unless you live in a place (like the UK) where we are required to ask for it.” Reddit said the option will be available in a user’s account settings, but will not roll out to all users immediately.
Disclosure: Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.
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