Four age-verification companies are making plans to force a return for the UK porn block. The block was due to come in as part of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) in 2017, but was scrapped in 2019 by Secretary of State for Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport, Baroness Nicky Morgan.
The block was designed to force pornographic sites to install age-checking technology for all UK visitors, in a move to stop minors from viewing adult videos online.
Despite the plan being scrapped, the age-verification companies (AgeChecked Ltd, VeriMe, AVYourself, and AVSecure) have lodged a judicial review at the High Court, claiming that Baroness Morgan only had the power to choose the date when the block would come into effect, and not the power to scrap the entire scheme.
The companies are claiming £3million in damages for the development of unused technology which were designed in anticipation of the law coming into effect.
Steve Winyard, the Chief Marketing Officer at AVSecure, told Wired: “We, and the other eight verification providers, felt that it was the wrong decision for the government to make for many reasons.
“There were contradictory reports and articles [saying] that the solutions weren’t up to the correct privacy standards – this was absolute nonsense.”
A key concern with the reintroduction of porn-blocking is with privacy, where the Open Rights Group have claimed that the collection of a vast database of pornographic preferences would be a security nightmare.
However, pro-blocking firms have countered the argument, saying it has developed technology which would guarantee anonymity and a secure verification process.
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