The Porn Laws are misguided, repressive, and totally ineffective at protecting children

Last week, the government announced a new law – one which would expose children to more harmful online material, compromise privacy, and hit the most vulnerable adults in society.

As of 15 July, to access online pornography you will have to either purchase a porn pass online or venture to off-licence to acquire an age-verification code. In both instances, you will have to prove you’re 18 using either a passport or a credit card.

The so-called Porn Laws first reared their head under David Cameron in 2013. After a series of non-starters, they have now finally been passed.

The purpose is ostensibly a noble one: to protect children from accessing harmful content online.

But not only will they not work, these new restrictions have worrying implications for the rest of society.

This won’t stop under-18s from accessing pornography. Tech-savvy kids will be able to circumvent these rules by simply using a VPN or nicking their parents’ credit cards.

There is, however, a real risk that, in trying to get around the restrictions, they may venture onto the so-called dark web, where they could be exposed to material far more damaging than mainstream pornography – including paedophilia content, and markets for guns and illegal drugs.

Adults, meanwhile, will face a multitude of unintended consequences.

First, concerns about privacy and data protection should be taken seriously. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced the implementation date via an email to tech journalists which exposed recipients’ email addresses.

If the government can’t even send out a press release properly (breaking GDPR rules in the process), why should we trust it to keep bank details and porn preferences private?

Second, while the government’s intentions may not be to curtail the freedoms of adults, that will be the outcome. And the new laws will discriminate most against the vulnerable – people without passports or credit cards, or for whom physically buying a porn pass isn’t an option (including those in care homes and the disabled).

We may not think of porn as being a right, but we should recognise that this new law is effectively targeting the most under-privileged groups in society – something that would be unacceptable with any other legal product.

I sympathise with the government’s aim: young children do need to be protected from accessing hardcore pornography, while adolescents could do with better guidance. But this isn’t the way to address the problem.

Instead, we need a twin approach of dialogue with the internet industry and better sex education.

Tech companies are not onboard with the age verification rules that have been forced on them. Google plans to launch an update which will encrypt its internet browser, thus making it even easier for porn watchers – children included – to circumvent the need for a porn pass. Imagine how much more effective policy would be if the government worked with the industry on a solution.

Ultimately, though, we must accept that porn is out there, and that young people will be exposed to it at some point in their adolescence, as they have been for all of time.

To combat its harmful effects, children should be taught in school that porn is not an accurate portrayal of sex in real life, and be given the tools to assess it in a healthy way. DCMS should also encourage parents to become better informed and proactive about their children’s internet use, rather than expecting the government to fix the problem for them.

The aim should be clear: stop kids from being harmed by porn without making it harder for adults to view it or compromising their privacy. There are ways for the government to make this a reality, but that means engaging with stakeholders such as tech companies, porn providers, and viewers – rather than just anxious parents who have fallen victim to a moral panic.

As it stands, however, the Porn Laws are repressive, discriminatory, and utterly ineffective.