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Why Age Verification for Online Porn Failed
The policy aimed to protect children, but critics say the flawed project presented serious privacy risks
When today’s politicians were at school, they may well have discovered pornography through a ragged magazine passed around the back of the class, or an illicit VHS tape at their friend’s house. Today, the scale, diversity, and immediacy of the porn available online makes those kind of formative encounters seem quaint. It’s a $97 billion global industry that accounts for about a third of all data transferred online; the website Pornhub served 5.5 billion hours of video during 2018.
Given the ubiquity of both the internet and porn, it is perhaps not surprising that our children are more exposed to it than ever. A comprehensive 2016–17 report by the influential U.K. charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, along with the Children’s Commissioner for England, found that 53% of 11- to 16-year-olds had been exposed to online porn. Twenty-eight percent encountered it accidentally, while 19% where shown it by someone else.
“I’m mostly concerned for the younger ones. They either don’t know about sex, are not sexually active, or do not necessarily…
