Porn or no porn?

Apparently there are millions of people in the UK who look at porn on-line. I saw one report that said 14 million, and I have no idea how they came to that number or how to estimate it.

The government has decided that practical steps must be taken to prevent under age persons from viewing inappropriate material, and so porn and other sites that may feature such stuff need to provide a mechanism for people to verify their ages.

This is not just porn sites, but any site that shows adult material, so even Reddit, for example.

Failure for sites to check ages means a huge fine, or worse.

How do you prove your age? Well, you can use some kind of reference to a credit card or mobile phone account, have a live selfie taken that will be ‘assessed’, use some kind of digital identity system and other systems have been mentioned.

The assessment system needs to be pretty accurate and reliable, not because valid users could be banned but because under-aged people may beat the system.

Concerns have been raised. Why would you want to give your credit card details to some unknown system with no guarantee they won’t be misused, sold on or whatever?

How long would it take for determined surfers to bypass the system?

How easy will it be for someone to impersonate someone else?

I have an account with Reddit that includes piercing groups. I was asked to confirm my age and chose the selfie method. It took ages, but accepted me. That would be my limit, I think.