Minister apologises as UK porn laws are pushed back six months
Plans to stop people under the age of 18 from accessing online pornography have been delayed for the second time by the government today.
Changes designed to stop under-18s from watching pornographic content were set to be launched in just a few weeks, but have now been pushed back a further six months.
Read more: Porn laws are misguided, repressive and totally ineffective
Culture secretary Jeremy Wright apologised for the mistake today, saying that the government had not notified the European Commission in line with a directive over new laws that companies will need to comply with, meaning there will be further delays to a measure that has already been postponed once before.
Wright said: “It has come to my attention in recent days that an important notification process was not undertaken for an element of this policy and I regret to say this will delay the commencement date.”
The verification system were set to become mandatory for commercial providers of pornography by 15 July.
Such a delay to the proposal – which is set to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world – would mean pornographic sites would have to verify the age of UK visitors by law.
Sites that do not implement the rules could face having payment services withdrawn or being blocked in the UK.
Read more: Government in email gaffe over new porn laws
Today’s delay comes months after the government was embroiled in a data breach blunder just hours after setting out its own privacy laws for the pornography age verification checks.
Culture minister Margot James insisted privacy around porn checks will be secure despite a press release regarding the new laws exposing hundreds of email addresses when it was sent out to journalists in April.