By Adam Cailler Jessica Fitch
A Ofcom official has admitted to the Daily Star that the new UK porn law can be bypassed 鈥渏ust like going to the pub鈥. The startling confession came during our visit to Ofcom’s head office just three weeks before the new rules are enforced. For the unaware, regulators had set a hard deadline of July 25 for pornographic websites, search engines and social media platform s to implement what they call 鈥渉ighly effective age assurance technology鈥 to safeguard children from encountering X-rated material online. Essentially, anyone wishing to view adult content will need to hand over (digitally) their identification to website bosses who will then verify that they are actually allowed to see adult content. However, the Daily Star had pointed out to Ofcom several weeks ago that using what is known as a VPN or Virtual Private Network to bypass the system is something many had already said online they would do. The use of VPNs shot up in the United States when similar rules were enforced there, rendering the new system almost entirely pointless. And when speaking to our reporter Jess Fitch, Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom鈥檚 Group Director for Online Safety, pretty much admitted that this was the case. He said: 鈥淲e think this is a pretty major step forward, and the reason we hope this kind of step forward is (going to work) is because . . . we start to have this system change. 鈥淚f you’re a dedicated teenager, you’re probably going to be able to find ways to get (around this) in the same way as people manage to find their way in the pub to buy alcohol at under 18. 鈥淥ur research shows that a lot of kids are stumbling across porn and then it’s just one click away, and that half a million eight to 14-year-olds are on these websites every month and we need to change that. 鈥淭his is very much a first step, and we’ve got a series of other things (we will introduce) 鈥 we are expecting really big shifts on the surface.鈥 When Jess 鈥 who is older than a child 鈥 tried one of the age verification methods, which used the computer’s camera to scan her face and build an age profile of her, it failed despite being above the age limit. Ofcom claims that no data will be sent to the adult sites through their age assurance/verification technology, which is something we’ll have to take their word for 鈥 but considering one method didn’t work, and the Ofcom official admitted it’s easy to get around, we’re not entirely confident this is going to work out at all. Time will tell . . . For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .