UK data regulator targets porn sites with Children’s Code that previously applied only to sites for kids
- The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office revised its position on the Children’s Code, saying it applies to any site ‘likely to be accessed’ by underage users
- The ICO will engage with adult-only services such as Pornhub and xHamster to ensure they are verifying users’ ages
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has pledged to crack down on porn sites and other adult-only services to ensure they are taking steps, such as verifying users’ ages, to prevent children’s access, the regulator said on Friday.
The new enforcement plans are a reversal for the ICO, which had previously maintained that services aimed at adults weren’t subject to the Children’s Code or Age Appropriate Design Code, a set of rules that guide how the UK Data Protection Act should be applied to digital services for children. It also follows a Bloomberg News report last month that showed the regulator hadn’t enforced a single child-protection case in the two years since the Children’s Code came into effect.
Companies that break the rules can face fines of as much as 4 per cent of annual global revenue.
The data watchdog changed its position after facing a legal challenge from 11 civil-society groups in 2021, said John Edwards, who became Information Commissioner in January 2022. Those groups argued that the wording of the code covers all services “likely to be accessed” by children and not just services aimed at children.
The organisations – including the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, children’s charity Barnardo’s and 5Rights, which advocates for child-safe digital design – said that allowing children to access adult-only services poses risks to data-protection in addition to exposing them to harmful content.
“We have revised our position,” Edwards said. “We now accept that if there are a significant number of children accessing the sites, they are in the aegis of the code.”
Child online safety groups welcomed the announcement.
“It’s brilliant news if the ICO is going to move against these porn sites who have known for a very long time that what they are doing is wrong, but never felt any legal pressure to do anything,” said John Carr, from the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety, which spearheaded the legal challenge. “These sites shouldn’t be processing children’s data.”