Companies that produce online pornography will be forced to bar children from viewing their content from the middle of July this year.
Legislation on the issue was originally passed in 2017, but implementation was postponed in 2018.
Today, Margot James, the Minister for Digital, said companies would have to comply by 15 July or face penalties.
Parents
The not-for-profit Internet Matters organisation welcomed the move, but said parents still needed to be on their guard.
Under the system – the first of its type in the world – anyone attempting to view pornography will need to either purchase a pass at a local shop or sign up for an AgeID account using ID such as a credit card.
It will be monitored by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), with websites which fail to comply having their payment services withdrawn or being blocked in the UK.
In a BBFC-commissioned poll, 88 per cent of parents with children aged between 7 and 17 backed an age-verification process.
Dialogue
CEO of Internet Matters Carolyn Bunting said, “we must recognise that digital solutions aren’t the only answer and parents can’t become complacent about their child’s digital world”.
“There is no substitute to having regular and honest conversations with your child about what they’re getting up to online, establishing an open dialogue about their digital life from a young age.”
Margot James said the new laws would help the UK “to be the safest place in the world to be online”.