Sites that fail to act could be fined up to 10 percent of their global turnover.
The Online Safety Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament in the coming months and is designed to protect users from harmful content.
Child safety groups have long called for age verification on porn sites, fearing that it is too easy for minors to access publicly available material online.
Similar measures were previously proposed but dropped in 2019.
Tech giants targeted for crackdown on harmful content
Studies show that half of 11- to 13-year-olds have seen pornography at some point.
Experts who work with children say this gives them an unhealthy view of sex and consent, putting them at risk for predators and potentially preventing them from reporting abuse.
Announcing the age verification plans, Digital Economy Minister Chris Philp said, “Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from the things no child should see.”
As well as being able to penalize websites that don’t comply with the rules, regulator Ofcom could prevent them from being accessible in the UK.
The owners of these sites could also be held criminally liable if they fail to cooperate with Ofcom.
Previously, only commercial porn sites allowing user-generated content were covered by the Online Safety Bill, but all commercial porn sites will now be covered.
Andy Burrows of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) welcomed the strengthening of the online harm bill, but said it didn’t go far enough.
“It is true that the government has listened to calls to close one of the loopholes in the online safety bill and protect children from pornography wherever it is hosted,” he said.
“Essentially, they also addressed our concerns and closed the Only Fans loophole “that would have let some of the riskiest sites get away with giving children access to extremely harmful material.
“But the legislation still fails to provide children with comprehensive protection from preventable abuse and harmful content and needs to be significantly strengthened to match the government’s rhetoric and focus minds at the top of tech companies on child safety.”
Proposals to require people to confirm their age before accessing explicit content online were first introduced as part of the Digital Economy Act in 2017, but the government never implemented them.
They were officially dropped in 2019, with ministers pledging that “other measures” would achieve the same results.
When the first online safety bill was announced last year, activists were shocked that it did not contain these long-promised controls.
Privacy issues
It will be up to businesses to decide how best to comply with the new rules, but Ofcom may recommend the use of certain age verification technologies.
However, the government says companies should not process or store data that is not relevant to verifying an individual’s age.
Despite the widespread use of age verification technology in industries such as online gambling, there are still concerns that it poses privacy risks.
Activists have warned that a database of porn users would be a huge hacking target for blackmailers.
Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group, which advocates for preserving digital rights and freedoms, said the rules would benefit age verification companies while offering “little practical benefit to children’s safety and a lot of harm to individuals’ privacy.”
“There is no indication that this proposal will protect people from tracking and profiling porn viewing,” he told the BBC.
“We have to assume that the same fundamental privacy and security mistakes are about to be made again.”
But Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, said the companies he represents have developed a wide range of methods to prove a person’s age online without disclosing their identity to the websites they visit.
“By using independent third-party organizations that are audited and certified to the highest standards of data protection and security, adults can be confident that their own privacy will be preserved while their children are protected.”
Obviously they will try to get you to take units to pair up with them and do dirty things, free to be tempted. I find the current systems healthy and not dangerous for the budget, because in fact you add money to an account, from a few euros to hundreds of euros and when you are in private with a girl of your choice it counts from this account but so no danger to go further. This is what we call in telephony the blocked package I think. As long as you have not decided to add money of your own free will you will not be able to spend it, I think it is a serious way of seeing and without stress.