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The UK's plan to block online pornography could be a privacy disaster

A scheme designed to limit children's access to adult content could end up creating a massive database of people's pornography habits

By James Ball

27 March 2019

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Internet users may use anonymity software to avoid the porn block

plainpicture/Daniel K Schweitzer

A LONG-PLANNED change to the way people in the UK access online pornography may finally take place in April. The move, which has been pushed back by the UK government a number of times and could face further delays, will see users blocked from virtually all websites hosting pornography unless they prove they are over 18.

The regulation will apply whenever someone in the UK visits a site, hosted anywhere in the world, whose main aim is the distribution of pornography. The system will be…

Article amended on 10 April 2019

We clarified that AgeID is a verification system set up by the company MindGeek

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