Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK media regulator will make it harder for under 18s to access pornography websites with stringent age checks that could include photo ID matching, facial age estimation technology and credit card checks.Ofcom on Thursday set out new rules that will compel adult websites to adopt robust age checks. Age assurance methods — which include age verification, age estimation or a combination of both — must be “highly effective” at correctly determining a child from an adult, the watchdog said, and can no longer include simply asking for a self-declaration of age.“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.”She said adults would “start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services”. Under the new rules, porn websites must start to introduce age checks immediately, while social media platforms that host pornography — such as X — and other types of content harmful to children will have to follow suit by July at the latest. “Those companies that fail to meet these new requirements can expect to face enforcement action from Ofcom,” she added. The move is the latest in the new rules being enforced under the UK’s Online Safety Act, which more broadly seeks to crack down on illegal content online as well as tighten rules over what children can access.Research by the children’s commissioner in 2023 found the average age at which children first encountered online pornography was 13, with 27 per cent coming across it at the age of 11.All web services within the scope of the rules must carry out a children’s access assessment. Age-checking methods must be “technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair” to be considered highly effective, Ofcom said. These include open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator age checks, credit card checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation.
