The state of age verification in the adult industry is one step forward, two steps back, says Thomas Winter, Managing Director of jenID Solutions, an ID verification software company:

It was with interest that we read that the much-anticipated legislation for the UK regarding age verification required on all those accessing pornography was to be scrapped. Years in the making, it was abandoned by the government due to technical difficulties and also concerns from privacy campaigners.

Many businesses had invested significant amounts of time, effort and money into this marketplace, which was estimated as being as many as 25 million people. It was stated that the technology was too hard to implement, however we feel that just didn’t need to be the case. Age verification checks do not need to be onerous in any way and can be carried out incredibly quickly and effectively without impacting on the consumer experience. A simple document and liveness test can confirm that an identity document such as a passport or driving license is, indeed, authentic and that the person holding the document is that individual.

Let’s be honest, there will always be a very small number who will find a way to bypass the security checks. But by putting effective identity verification in place, it will help to combat the issues of child consumption of inappropriate content and show that company in a good light reputationally. Even without this legislation in place, we call on providers of adult content to show social responsibility and to do more to stop young people accessing inappropriate content.

In September it was reported that Australia will be investigating how age verification works for online gambling sites and seeing if that can be applied successfully to porn sites. Not surprisingly, there is concern that large numbers of children under the age of 18 are accessing pornography. The chair of the committee, Liberal Party MP Andrew Wallace said,

This is concerning, as research shows that accessing pornography negatively influences young people’s attitudes to sex, sexuality and relationships.

We hope that Australia is able to find a way to legislate in a manner that the UK was unable to do so and in doing so, to protect young people from the negative influences that such content brings.