The UK porn block, explained
For the best part of half a decade Conservative politicians, starting with David Cameron, have been on a crusade to clean up the web. They succeeded at the end of 2017 when parliament passed the Digital Economy Act, which laid out the plans for the new porn block.
In simple terms, its plan is to require pornographic websites to verify users are over 18 before they view content, with several age verification providers vying for their custom using a variety of different methods. But the policy has been beset by numerous delays.
And now, it's been cancelled completely. As of October 16, 2019, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) dropped the entire porn block. Culture secretary Nicky Morgan, in a written statement, said the government wasn't going to pursue the implementation of Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act (aka the porn block). “The Digital Economy Act objectives will therefore be delivered through our proposed online harms regulatory regime," Morgan said. "This course of action will give the regulator discretion on the most effective means for companies to meet their duty of care.”
So, how did this mess happen at all? Here we explain where the new regulations came from, what they mean for web users and the problems they could create in the future.
