Porn in the UK, how the government might make it more dangerous
Bling regulation
Online safety is a large topic right now, especially in the U.K. where they are currently trying to push through the online safety bill. One thing that they are trying to push through is ID verification on every single user that comes to an adult site.
Now, I know what your first reaction to this probably is: ‘no way I’m giving my ID to a porn site’. And unless you are posting pornography yourself then you shouldn’t.
I started my company because I wanted to make the adult industry safer. But, this is exactly why I take issue with these types of regulations, because it makes it more dangerous. The reality is, it’s not a solution to the actual problem and it creates a larger issue. It is dangerous, and everyone should care about this. Here is why;
Why is this type of regulation happening?
Since the beginning of the internet, laws have been struggling to keep up. And there are a lot of blindspots. In the last coming years, there have been a lot of increasing pressures on governments to do something about ‘the porn problem’. This is especially after a New York Times article was published uncovering the child abuse material issues on some major porn sites. Likewise, there has been growing concern over how easy it has become for young people to stumble across adult content.
Why are they not the people to make this regulation?
I have had a lot of conversations with regulators. The sad fact about a lot of the regulators I’ve met with is that they are mid-level bureaucrats that have no knowledge of understanding of the subjects that they are making regulation on. Some of these conversations and email chains have been almost comical, because when you explain to them why their regulation is dangerous, they either;
Can’t justify it to you
Agree with you, but tell you that they can’t do anything
The reality is, that if you are making regulations on the adult space, then surely you should be speaking with industry experts on how to do so. This is especially true for the adult industry, as there are so many outside misconceptions about it. And so, if you try to make regulations without understanding if, you will most likely cause more damage, and that’s what they’re doing. Another way to think about it is, would you feel comfortable making regulation about the iron industry? No, because you don’t know anything about it, and usually they don’t either.
Why does this type of regulation not work?
One simple word: VPN. Regulators seem to forget that VPN is a thing. And that even if they put this regulation in place, users would just use their VPN to go onto another site that is not bound by the UK regulation. I find it comical that sometimes politicians don’t take these kinds of things into account.
We have also seen this type of regulation enforced in other countries, and seen it fail. For example, Germany, France & Spain. Likewise, the UK tried to do this in 2019, and had to backtrack on it. Clearly, we already have multiple case studies that it does not work. So, why are we trying the same thing and expecting a different result?
Why is this type of regulation dangerous?
Firstly, Identifying every single user is a massive data privacy concern. This is not me saying that creators shouldn’t ID, because they should. But that is an entirely different subject that needs to be separated.
As a user I would not give my ID. This isn’t just to porn sites, but I wouldn’t want to hand it to a mainstream social media site either, and it should be your right not to. Nowadays, we are increasingly losing our privacy. Similarly, pornography is a taboo matter for a lot of people and so data leaks in this industry can be incredibly damaging. In addition, some people argue that there is no data privacy risk, but we need to think about how this kind of information could be potentially weaponized, be that by an individual, big tech company or government.
Moreover, this type of regulation does not make porn safer. I had one very interesting conversation with a regulator, who blatantly said that they don’t care what ages 15-18 are looking at, and that this is to stop younger than that viewers from accessing these sites. Now, I clearly agree with stopping these younger viewers, but for regulators to say that they don’t care what 15-18 are viewing and experiencing on porn sites is already a problematic attitude within itself. Especially since for these age groups porn has become education. So, if they are pushed off regulated sites, and onto unregulated sites with VPN this is going to be even more detrimental to their sex ed and sex lives, and can even contribute to consent issues. Therefore, this type of regulation is harmful.
How is this type of regulation hypocritical?
If you want to make the internet safer, okay. But, the issue that is currently occurring is that certain types of adult sites are being made to follow this regulation, but then big tech companies which also have a lot of porn content on them, are not being asked to follow this regulation. Why do you think that is?
What is a better form of regulation?
I really hate when people point out a problem to a form of regulation, or a problem in general, without offering a solution. And in my opinion the best solution to this problem is to look at the way that adult AND social media sites are moderating their content. I strongly believe that a pre-moderation system mixed with constantly democratic guidelines is the best way to stop harmful/illegal content but also unfair censorship. Take a look at Freyja xo to see how that works.