UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is once again facing rebellion from members of his Conservative Party who want to strengthen legislation that would force websites to introduce more robust age checks in order to prevent children from accessing pornography, Bloomberg reported.
A series of amendments to the long-debated Online Safety Bill will propose that all porn websites must implement age verification systems within six months of the bill becoming law.
This follows a planned rebellion by Tory MPs earlier this month that prompted Sunak to agree to demands for Big Tech directors to face jail time if they fail to remove harmful content.
The Online Safety Bill, which aims to protect children when they use the internet, is set to begin its passage through the House of Lords on Monday. The new amendments, likely to be debated in late February, will require adults to prove they are over 18 by using stringent forms of age verification, such as uploading an ID card or credit card details.
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The proposed amendments to the Online Safety Bill also suggest alternative methods of age verification such as facial recognition technology, which would not require any identification documents.
One such platform, OnlyFans, already uses this approach with the help of software developed by Yoti. Despite the government's argument that legislation should be flexible to adapt to changing technology, supporters of the amendment argue that immediate action is necessary to protect children from the harms of pornography.
This is not the first attempt by policymakers to introduce age checks for adult websites. The Digital Economy Act of 2017 also included provisions for age verification, but they were ultimately scrapped by the government before being put into effect.
