New blocking powers to protect children online

Amendments to the Digital Economy Bill bringing in the robust new measure will be tabled next week and is the latest tool to stop children viewing adult content online.

Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said:

The Government is committed to keeping children safe from harmful pornographic content online and that is exactly what we are doing.

Only adults should be allowed to view such content and we have appointed a regulator, BBFC, to make sure the right age checks are in place to make that happen. If sites refuse to comply, they should be blocked.

The Digital Economy Bill already contains measures to bring in age verification for pornographic sites and the ability to withdraw payment services from non-compliant sites – hitting them in the pocket.

This latest measure will allow the BBFC to go further by directing ISPs to block access to rogue sites.

The Government has been working with the ISPs and the BBFC on the move to ensure it will be successful in protecting children.

It is also seeking co-operation from other supporting services like servers to crack down on wrongdoers.

The measures will protect children from accessing pornography online, just as they are protected offline.

The risks and harm to young children who view pornography are real. Not only can it distress them, it can have a damaging impact on how they view sex and relationships for the rest of their lives.

A recent survey by the NSPCC found that 47% of 11-16 year olds had accessed an adult site and that one in five 11-17 year olds said they had seen pornographic images that shocked or upset them.

The regulator BBFC will be given the powers to direct ISPs to prevent access to any site that doesn’t have age verification in place. If sites won’t take the step to ensure children can’t access their content, this new power will make sure they can’t by preventing viewers accessing the site.

The amendment will allow the age verification regulator, BBFC, to issue a notice to ISPs, and those that cover mobile network operators, to prevent access to websites that have no or inadequate age-verification for pornographic material.

The regulator will have flexibility with a range of options and which one they use will depend on the circumstances of any given case. However, once they have been instructed to act, ISPs will prevent access to the whole pornography site.