The UK Is Rolling Out Face ID... for Porn?

By now you've probably seen an NSFW tweet or headline referencing "pornography viewers" and the restrictions you too might face -- pun intended -- if you're a viewer in the UK.

Following the news that a fifth of people watch porn at work, Online safety regulator, Ofcom, revealed its new strategy: face scanning. The method is a new form of enforcing the Online Safety Act which aims to protect children, but as some have reported, has caused more harm than good. This new system of age-gating porn, however, aims to further Ofcom's objective: restricting child pornography.

"Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change,” Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told The Independent. "Our practical guidance sets out a range of methods for highly effective age checks. We’re clear that weaker methods – such as allowing users to self-declare their age – won’t meet this standard.

According to an online survey, the average age one discovers porn is 13 years old, technology secretary Michelle Donelan also told The Independent. "Pornography can have an absolutely devastating impact on children and their view of healthy relationships. This is exactly why I made protecting children from pornography a key objective of our Online Safety Act."

Moving forward, "Companies must now work closely with Ofcom to ensure they have robust checks in place to stop children from seeing harmful content that they can never unsee," Donelan continued.

Porn restrictions have been tightened globally, as well. In early 2023, republican legislator Laurie Schlegel was inspired to increase porn restrictions in the U.S. after reading a quote TeenVogue shared of Billie Eilish. "I used to watch a lot of porn," Eilish told the publication in her 2021 interview. "I started watching porn when I was like 11. I thought that’s how you learned how to have sex. I was watching abusive porn, to be honest, when I was like 14."

Schlegel took this information into her own hands and decided to expand the Act 440 bill, which according to U.S. records, "Provides for liability for publishers and distributors of material harmful to minors." How? Well, if you're ever in the state of Louisiana, just know that you'll have to pull out your driver's license info before indulging in your fav NSFW scenes.

In other news, tune into Episode 4 of Servin' Sex with Yaris Sanchez.

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