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The UK government is set to introduce mandatory ID checks by 2018 in a bid to decrease the shockingly high number of teens under the age of 18 viewing pornography.
The Digital Economy Act was signed off by UK Digital Minister Matt Hancock yesterday and will mean fines of $400,000 for service providers and individuals who fail to follow the new system.
There is no word yet on how the new act will be enforced – though it is currently speculated the website data from porn websites will be somehow linked to electoral data and will be made public.
The Digital Economy Act will also crack down on bots who buy and resell items like concert tickets, and online piracy will soon have more severe consequences.
Late last month a study found that young people in Australia were looking at porn earlier and more often than ever before.
The study, published in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health revealed that a shocking 90 per cent of Victorians aged between 15 and 29 had accessed sexual content.
The sexual content is being accessed most frequently by well-educated teenage boys, and age of first exposure now sits at 13 years for males and 16 years for girls.
Burnet Institute researcher Dr Megan Lim led the study and said in a statement:
“All the young men in our study said they’d seen pornography, and so did the majority of women. They also reported seeing pornography at quite high frequency.”
“Around 80 per cent of young men said they watched weekly, and among the women who watched pornography, nearly two-thirds viewed at least monthly,” Dr Lim continued.
“Our hypothesis is that these teenagers are being missed in traditional sex education and even in the media,” Dr Lim said.
“There’s very little information out there for diverse groups.
“So young people may be seeking further information about things they’re curious about, and one of the only ways they’re able to access that is through pornography.”
Childnet CEO, Will Gardner, told News.com.au that Australia is already ahead of the game when it comes to tackling cyber issues.
“Different countries are taking different responses and if people can learn lessons from what we’re going here that would be great,” he said.
Experts are concerned at the damage potential if this sort of information is made public, including violations of online privacy.
These figures also remind us of the importance of talking to your children about online behaviours to help them navigate this new online space.
