Websites showing pornographic content may have to use credit card checks and photo ID matching to confirm users are over 18, as part of the Online Safety Act.
Regulator Ofcom has published draft guidance for platforms on how to protect children from pornography to ensure firms comply with the new internet laws.
The recommendations include photo ID matching – where an uploaded document such as a passport is compared with an image taken at that moment.
The draft guidance says websites must use methods which are technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair to carry out age checks.
Verified facial age estimation technology and mobile network age checks which automatically block age-restricted websites if the operator knows the user is under 18 have both been recommended.
And users could also sign up to digital identity wallets where their proof of age is stored digitally and can be shared with the online pornography service.
More on Ofcom
Related Topics:
However, the regulator said certain approaches would not meet its new standards, including self-declaration of age, online payments methods which do not require a person to be 18, such as a debit card, or general terms, disclaimers or warnings about content.
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms which do not comply with the new laws will face enforcement action, including possible fines.
Advertisement
“Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change,” Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said.
“Our practical guidance sets out a range of methods for highly effective age checks. We’re clear that weaker methods – such as allowing users to self-declare their age – won’t meet this standard.
“Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded.”
Ofcom said it would continue to work with online pornography services to finalise the draft guidance before a final version is published in early 2025.
Weather warnings are in place for snow, wind and rain across much of the UK on New Year’s Day.
The start of 2025 will bring a “multi-hazard storm, combining severe gales, heavy rain and possibly significant snow as the rain runs into cold air,” said Sky News meteorologist Christopher England.
The most significant snowfall on New Year’s Day will be from Donegal, across Northern Ireland and into the north of England and south of Scotland.
The wind looks strongest in the south, Mr England added, where 60mph winds are possible inland and 80mph gusts around the coasts of the Irish Sea.
The stormy weather continues on 2 January, with the Met Office issuing yellow weather warnings across England, Wales and parts of Scotland.
Tens of thousands of passengers had flights delayed or cancelled, while drivers were warned about dangerous conditions with poor visibility.
Revellers are also set for a “wet and rather windy” New Year’s Eve, with the potential for a snowy Hogmanay in Scotland.
There could be some “possibly disruptive weather” on 31 December, Met Office meteorologist Simon Partridge said, with Scotland likely to see the worst of it.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for winds of up to 70mph that may cause travel disruption on New Year’s Eve.
The alert, in place from 7am until 11pm on Tuesday, covers most of Northern Ireland as well as north of York in England up to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Greenock.
The forecaster also warned that delays to transport are likely, with gusts of up to 60mph expected in most areas.
Those affected should check road conditions for driving and the latest travel information as well as preparing for in advance for potential power cuts.
Six teenagers and a 52-year-old man have been arrested after an 18-year-old was stabbed to death in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.
Four 17-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Two girls aged 15 and 16 have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, as has a man, 52.
Police were called to reports a man had been stabbed on Rose Avenue on Saturday evening.
They found the victim on nearby Heanor Road with a stab wound but despite the efforts of the emergency services, he was pronounced dead at the scene just before 9pm.
“The investigation is very much in its early stages and we are urging anyone with information that may assist with our inquiries to contact us as a matter of urgency,” said Detective Chief Inspector Claudia Musson.
The teenager’s family have been made aware and are being assisted by specially trained officers.
The murder probe is being led by the East Midlands special operations unit.
Police are particularly keen to hear from people with CCTV or doorbell footage and any dashcam footage between the times of 7pm and 9pm in the areas of Heanor Road, Rose Avenue, Summerfields Way, Kedleston Drive and Peveril Drive.
Anyone with any information has been asked to contact Derbyshire Police quoting incident number 940 of December 28.
A pensioner who is refusing to leave what’s being branded Britain’s loneliest housing estate has told Sky News he is facing bullying and intimidation tactics to force him out.
Nick Wisniewski’s ex-council flat in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire is set to be demolished because the local authority wants to redevelop the area, which has become a derelict eyesore.
The vast area on the outskirts of Glasgow used to have almost 1,000 properties, but slowly the bulldozers have moved in, creating huge mounds of rubble where homes once stood.
The land is overgrown, with all remaining properties boarded up – apart from the retired bank worker’s home, which demolition teams have been unable to touch as he refuses to budge.
‘They’ll basically need to drag me out’
The 68-year-old, whose neighbours were all rehomed in 2023, bought the flat in 2017 under the discounted right-to-buy scheme and is now mortgage-free.
He told Sky News he rejected an initial offer from North Lanarkshire Council of £35,000 plus two year’s rent as it would not be enough to buy a new place.
More on Scotland
Related Topics:
Contemplating a time in the future when he is forced out, he said: “By law they can smash my door down, they can come in here, manhandle me to get me out. That’s the law, and they’ll basically need to drag me out.”
Asked if he is prepared to go to that length to stop himself being removed, he said: “I am hoping it doesn’t come to that, but if it does then so be it.”
He reveals a compulsory purchase order process is now under way.
A compulsory purchase order is the legal power given to a local council to buy a property without the owner’s consent.
The legal battle will now be resolved by the Scottish government in due course.
He said: “It’s been all intimidation, bullying, lies. They offered me £40,000 over a year ago. I thought they’d have offered me a wee bit more. I would accept, probably, £60,000.
“They had a meeting a couple of weeks ago saying that they are starting legal, which means compulsory purchase order.
“There’s so many stages to that and it’ll take a while for that to come in to force.”
North Lanarkshire Council told Sky News it “completely refutes” any allegations of bullying or intimidation.
A spokesman said: “We are continuing to try and engage with the remaining resident and our focus is on progressing our ambitious plans to transform this area of Gowkthrapple for the benefit of the local community.”