The UK government recently passed a new Digital Economy Act, under which the British Board of Film Censors will check if the users logging onto porn websites are over 18 years of age and monitor the ban of ‘extreme porn.’
The term ‘extreme porn’ includes realistic depictions of rape, or sexual acts likely to cause harm or death.
According to Metro, privacy groups say that the new law is ‘unworkable’ as it could see normal porn sites banned alongside ‘extreme’ ones.
“The definition of sexual acts likely to cause death is incredibly vague and could include fictionalised practises like asphyxiation, for example,” Myles Jackman, legal director of Open Rights Group told Mashable.
A spokesman for Open Rights Group said, “The DEAct may result in legal pornographic content being blocked – either because a site has failed to implement age verification or because the BBFC decide some of a site’s content falls within the definition of extreme pornography.”
“This has implications for the freedom of expression of thousands of UK web users,” he added.
Users maybe forced to enter their credit card details, mobile numbers or even register their age at the Post Office in order to log into a porn website.
