What algorithms are planned to be used and how safe will it be?
The UK has proposed new guidelines for age verification to protect children from accessing online pornography. In particular, it is proposed to use artificial intelligence technology, which can determine from the camera of the device used by appearance whether the viewer has reached the age of majority.
Under the recent UK Online Safety Act, sites and apps that display or publish pornographic content are required to ensure that children will not be exposed to pornography on their service.
According to a study last year led by the Children's Commissioner for England , on average, children first encounter online pornography at the age of 13. About 27% of children see it by the age of 11, and about 10% - by the age of 9.
"Regardless of the approach, we expect that all services will reliably protect children from accidental access to porn sites. At the same time, the rights and freedoms of adults to access legal content must remain secure," said Melanie Dawes, head of the media regulator Ofcom.
The regulator described its proposal to estimate age by face as using AI to analyze a user's facial features. Most likely, this will require creating a selfie on the device and then uploading it to the porn site itself or an intermediary site. Whether it will be possible to fake such a verification method remains to be seen.
As a backup measure, Ofcom suggested checking photos of identity documents or checking credit cards. Another option is the integration of banks into this process, when the user allows the bank used to confirm their legal age to the visited porn site.
Meanwhile, the UK's Institute for Economic Research said that mandatory age verification by such methods threatens users ' privacy and exposes them to data leaks, increasing the amount of sensitive and compromising information in the hands of third parties.
However, Ofcom noted that current verification methods, such as self-verification of age, will soon no longer meet the new standards, so the optimal solution, which will soon become ubiquitous in the UK, should be chosen in the near future.
Ofcom expects to publish final recommendations on this issue in early 2025.
The UK has proposed new guidelines for age verification to protect children from accessing online pornography. In particular, it is proposed to use artificial intelligence technology, which can determine from the camera of the device used by appearance whether the viewer has reached the age of majority.
Under the recent UK Online Safety Act, sites and apps that display or publish pornographic content are required to ensure that children will not be exposed to pornography on their service.
According to a study last year led by the Children's Commissioner for England , on average, children first encounter online pornography at the age of 13. About 27% of children see it by the age of 11, and about 10% - by the age of 9.
"Regardless of the approach, we expect that all services will reliably protect children from accidental access to porn sites. At the same time, the rights and freedoms of adults to access legal content must remain secure," said Melanie Dawes, head of the media regulator Ofcom.
The regulator described its proposal to estimate age by face as using AI to analyze a user's facial features. Most likely, this will require creating a selfie on the device and then uploading it to the porn site itself or an intermediary site. Whether it will be possible to fake such a verification method remains to be seen.
As a backup measure, Ofcom suggested checking photos of identity documents or checking credit cards. Another option is the integration of banks into this process, when the user allows the bank used to confirm their legal age to the visited porn site.
Meanwhile, the UK's Institute for Economic Research said that mandatory age verification by such methods threatens users ' privacy and exposes them to data leaks, increasing the amount of sensitive and compromising information in the hands of third parties.
However, Ofcom noted that current verification methods, such as self-verification of age, will soon no longer meet the new standards, so the optimal solution, which will soon become ubiquitous in the UK, should be chosen in the near future.
Ofcom expects to publish final recommendations on this issue in early 2025.
