AI could prevent minors from accessing pornography in the UK

The UK government's recently passed Online Safety Act requires websites and apps that display or publish pornographic content to ensure that children cannot find it. The legal age to watch pornography in Britain is 18 and over.

AI could judge if user is of porn-watching age under new UK guidance https://t.co/RsNaJNqokv pic.twitter.com/RAcHZRhWSv

- Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) December 5, 2023

On average, children watch pornography online for the first time at age 13, while almost a quarter discover it by age 11, and one in 10 is just 9 years old, a 2021-2022 study showed.

UK organization finds thousands of AI-created images of child sexual abuse

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it found almost 3 images of child sexual abuse created by artificial intelligence. The UK-based organization said existing images of real-life abuse victims were being incorporated into AI models, which then produced new representations of them.

“Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children against accessing pornography, and also to ensure that adults' privacy rights and freedoms to access legal content are safeguarded,” said the regulator's CEO. Ofcom media, Melanie Dawes.

The regulator described its suggestion on facial age estimation as using artificial intelligence to analyze a viewer's features. This would likely require taking a selfie on a device and uploading it.

Further, he said his proposal also included photo ID matching, requiring a user to upload an identification document such as a passport or driver's license to prove their age, in addition to credit card checks.

Another suggestion was open banking, where users can consent to their banks sharing information with online pornography sites to confirm they are over 18.

The Institute of Economic Affairs stated that mandatory age verification threatened users' privacy and would expose them to breaches and abuse, increasing the amount of sensitive data held by third parties.

The regulator said weaker methods such as self-declaration of age, online payment methods that do not require a person to be 18 and disclaimers or warnings would no longer meet the standards of its new guidance.

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