Porn sites that don’t protect children to have payments c*ck blocked

Pay porn sites that don’t go out of their way to prevent under 18s from accessing their content could have their revenue streams cut off. 

Banks could be ordered to block any credit or debit card payments to legal adult porn sites under new measures being proposed by the government and ATVOD (Authority for Television On Demand). 

ATVOD, which regulates online video services alongside Ofcom, has handed out fines to Playboy TV after it was found to not have adequately protected younger eyes from pornography. 

Read our guide to Parental Internet ControlsThe proposals, revealed by the Telegraph, reveal that a meeting between the UK Cards Association, the British Bankers Association, the Payments Council and the government will take place next month in order to work out a deal. Sources indicate that if the talks don’t result in something the government doesn’t like, then legislation will be considered. 

It won’t just be UK or EU-based sites that are affected either. Damian Green, the minister for policing and criminal justice is quoted saying: “The government supports the work that ATVOD has undertaken. 

“This will explore with UK financial institutions and card companies the possibility of declining to process payments to websites operating outside the European Union which allow under-18s in the UK to view explicit pornographic content.”

ATVOD revealed in July that it planned to block payments to porn sites based overseas that did not satisfactorily safeguard their content, wanting access to be restricted to credit card holders only. Seeing as you need to be 18 to own a credit card, ATVOD deemed it an effective way to limit access.

Ruth Evans, chair of ATVOD, said: “Given the importance the public clearly attaches to protecting children from exposure to hardcore porn material, it is surely time to think about more imaginative ways of ensuring that the safeguards ATVOD institutes around UK services are replicated for hardcore porn websites accessible in the UK, but operated overseas.”

The question about how to regulate non-pay sites like RedTube and PornHub still remains. Pete Johnson, the chief executive of ATVOD, criticises free and easy to access content, describing it as a gateway to premium, paid content, but says outright blocking of porn sites would not be appropriate, as long as its lawful for adults to view.