Stronger age checks to come into force for online pornography sites in UK
Users accessing online pornography in the UK could soon be required to have their face scanned, under measures announced by Ofcom to stop children seeing the material,Enforcement guidelines released on Thursday, which will apply to social media platforms as well as sites such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, stipulate that children will no longer be able to simply assert they are 18 to view pornography online,The communications watchdog also said adults would have to start proving their age – with methods including facial age estimation, credit card checks or matching with a photo-ID,The requirements around the “highly effective” age checks will start coming into force this spring for several thousand services that display or publish their own pornographic content,The rules will bite on so-called peer-to-peer and social media services by July, with potential sanctions for breaches including fines of up to 10% of a company’s turnover.
The average age that children in England first encounter pornography is 13, with one in 10 viewing it as young as nine years old, according to research from the children’s commissioner for England, who has said depictions of “degradation, sexual coercion, aggression and exploitation are commonplace”.Ofcom has not set a level at which age verification software needs to be effective (eg 90%), but it said it could do this in the future as it continues moves to enforce the Online Safety Act.“For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services,” said Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive.“Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid.That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content.
Today, this starts to change.”Since last June, Elon Musk’s X site has allowed “consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behaviour”.Meta’s Instagram platform, overseen by Mark Zuckerberg, prohibits nudity.Almudena Lara, Ofcom’s policy director with responsibility for child protection, said: “It doesn’t matter where you are based, who your political allies are: if you operate in the UK, you need to comply with their rules.“I am confident that in a few years time, we will look back and wonder: how did we think it was OK for children to be able to be exposed to this content?”Ofcom said one possible age-check method that would avoid the need for a facial scan uses email addresses.
Systems are available that cross-reference other services the address is associated with – for example, utility bills and financial institutions – to estimate the user’s age.Automated facial age estimation does not cross-reference a user’s face with an image stored on a database but rather estimates age based on visual characteristics and no image is stored.Such software is already used by OnlyFans, a British-based subscription platform well-known for pornography.On social media sites it is likely that “age gates” could apply at the level of the post rather than at social media account signup.With thousands of porn providers around the world, cracking down on those that flout the Online Safety Act could prove difficult however.
“The challenge is if a number of sites are implementing [this], but then they’re seeing that others are not, and nothing is happening, then they will say, ‘Hey, why am I doing it?,’” said Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs VerifyMy, which provides checks using email and facial age estimation,“They have a real challenge here to make sure that Ofcom implement it across the board, effectively,”The new rules also mean that sites must not allow any pornographic content to be visible before age checks are complete,Ofcom said that platforms must ensure that privacy rights are respected and adults can still access legal pornography, but it said it would “not hesitate to take action and launch investigations against services that do not engage or ultimately comply”,
Bank of England delays rules designed to avoid banking crash by a year
The Bank of England will further delay capital rules meant to prevent another 2008-style crash, as it weighs the impact of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s call for regulators to help drive UK growth.The Bank’s regulatory arm said it was delaying the date by which banks had to implement Basel 3.1 rules by a year, to January 2027.The Bank’s regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), said it made the decision after consulting with the Treasury, and that it had taken “competitive and growth considerations” into account.It marks the third delay by the central bank, which is buying time to see how far the Trump administration will go in watering down regulations
IMF upgrades UK growth forecast and takes swipe at Trump plans
The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its forecast for UK growth this year in an update to its biannual assessment of the global economy, while taking a swipe at plans by Donald Trump’s incoming US administration for the potentially destabilising effect of large-scale tax cuts, import tariffs and weaker regulations.In a fillip to the Labour government, the Washington-based organisation said it expected the UK economy to grow by 1.6% in 2025, up from an earlier forecast of 1.5%.The IMF judged that Labour’s increase in investment spending, improved household finances and a series of interest rate cuts by the Bank of England would give the UK economy a lift this year
Can Donald Trump circumvent a TikTok ban?
As the app is on the brink of being expelled, the president-elect has been working to make good on his pledge to save itIn the run-up to the election, Donald Trump made a plea to his followers. “FOR ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!” he posted to his Truth Social account in September. Since then, he’s been working to make good on that pledge.He hosted TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in December, implored the US supreme court to delay a TikTok ban and he’s now reportedly considering an executive order to postpone the app’s disappearance. Chew is slated to join Trump at his inauguration in what appears to be a show of solidarity with the embattled executive
Russian hackers target WhatsApp accounts of ministers worldwide
Russian state-linked hackers have targeted the WhatsApp accounts of government ministers and officials around the world with emails inviting them to join user groups on the messaging app.The WhatsApp tactic marks a new approach by a hacking unit called Star Blizzard. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has linked Star Blizzard to Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB, and has accused it of seeking to “undermine trust in politics in the UK and likeminded states”.According to a blogpost by Microsoft, victims receive an email from an attacker impersonating a US government official, enticing the recipient to click on a QR code that gives the attacker access to their WhatsApp account. The code, instead of giving access to a WhatsApp group, connects an account to a linked device or the WhatsApp Web portal
Draper delighted hard work paying off after hat-trick of Melbourne marathons
Jack Draper says his trio of five-set victories at the Australian Open are evidence of the hard work he has put into his career, effort that is finally paying off for him in the biggest matches.“I still have a long way to go, but this is a huge drive forward, the fact that I’ve come through three five-set matches, mentally and physically, it doesn’t happen often,” said Draper. “That’s a testament to the work I’ve done and the place I’m in. So very, very proud of that.”At 12:55am on Saturday morning in Melbourne, Draper, the 15th seed, closed out his third five-set win in as many matches to reach the fourth round with a 6-4, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) victory over Aleksandar Vukic of Australia
Windsor embraces return of jumps racing with cash at the Million festival
When Windsor staged what was billed as its last ever jumps meeting in December 1998, the final race on the card was the Norwegian Blue Handicap Hurdle – a clear sign that as far as the track was concerned, jumping was no more. It had ceased to be.A generation later, though, it is suddenly showing distinct signs of life. There were just under 5,000 racegoers at Windsor last month for the first officially scheduled jumps meeting for 26 years, and the queues at the turnstiles on Friday – the first of two days as part of the first Berkshire Million festival, with the Clarence House Chase card at Ascot as the meat in the sandwich – suggested plenty of those fans had come back for more.There was a total of £18,299 in win prize money on offer for the seven races in 1998
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Memo for Rachel Reeves: regulators cannot produce growth out of thin air | Nils Pratley