Porn will soon be much harder to access in the United Kingdom after a new bill passed its final reading in the House of Commons and will soon be officially signed into law.

 

Changes to the Digital Economy Bill went unopposed by Members of Parliament (MPs). Pornographic websites, even free ones, will soon have to somehow verify the age of visitors (although the government has yet to stipulate what, exactly, will be required for this). Internet Service Providers will be responsible for blocking all offending sites.

 

But there's more: the law will also ban videos that depict "non-conventional" sexual practices. If a sexual activity cannot be seen in a commercially available X-rated DVD, then it won't be allowed online.

 

Although the bill does not go into specifics about what will be banned, a few years ago the government updated the UK’s Communications Act to declare acts like fisting, watersports, female squirting, cum eating, and public sex to be obscene. (You can find a more comprehensive list here.)

 

The bill has been criticized for violating a person's rights to privacy, and for violating free speech protections. It is also somewhat limited in that only actual porn sites will be targeted; free media sites like Twitter and Tumblr will still be alllowed to post porn.

 

 "There is a difference between websites that provide commercial pornography and platforms on which others can upload images, and getting this right among that second group is much harder than around the first group," admitted Culture minister Matt Hancock. "And so what we are proposing to do is to put forward this Bill to deal with the large swathe of the problem and to get this working properly and to deal with the mainstay of the problem and then see how it's working."

 

The final step is Senate approval, which is seen as a given. The good news: if you're British, think about all the free time you're going to have to take up a new hobby!

 

Digital Economy Bill passed by MPs, forcing people to ask if they want to watch porn [The Independent]

 

UK to censor online videos of 'non-conventional' sex acts [The Guardian]

 

UK parliament passes Digital Economy Bill, forcing people to register if they want to watch porn and banning many sex acts [Belfast Telegraph]