Back in April, we told you about the proposed internet porn block in Britain.

Much like Brexit, it was a silly idea with way too many moving parts that was unlikely to work well, even it was approved.

The biggest issue seemed to surround exactly how people would prove their age online. One of the worst ideas was an over-the-counter card that can be bought from a shop.

“I’d like eggs, milk and a porn card, please” – yep, that was never going to work.

They also wanted people to upload ID documents online.

Would you hand your ID document over to a porn site? Me neither.

Anyway, after months of debate and delays, they’ve finally decided to scrap it, reports The Verge.

Nicky Morgan, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sport, says the government “will not be commencing” Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 — which would have required internet users to prove they were over 18 before viewing pornographic sites.

Instead, it will focus on protecting children through “wider online harms proposals.”

The porn ban was already widely considered dead. It was shelved indefinitely in July, following multiple delayed deadlines […] But it’s now officially been abandoned.

The idea behind the ban was to protect children from pornography, but as Sky points out, it could have actually made things worse.

The requirement to confirm every porn watcher’s identity raised the possibility of a massive database of everyone’s tastes in porn, built by the very pornographers the measure was intended to protect children from.

Yes, really: AgeID, possibly the leading age verification product, was designed by MindGeek, the owner of Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube.

Other porn sites joined in too. And they weren’t getting involved out of the goodness of their hearts.

Not ideal.

While the porn block of April is dead, the attempt to regulate porn sites isn’t entirely over.

[Secretary of State for Digital Nicky] Morgan seemed to suggest the porn block wasn’t dead, but instead in suspended animation, capable of being resurrected at any time.

She promised that its objectives would “be delivered through our proposed online harms regulatory regime”, which most likely means that porn websites will be being covered by the sweeping “duty of care” currently being developed by the government to handle legal-but-nasty harms online.

This is likely to further complicate the bill drafting process, so don’t panic just yet.

In the meantime, parents should be controlling the content that their kids watch online, anyway.

If the government feels the need to interfere in your parenting, you know there’s something wrong.

[source:verge&sky]