Italy jumps on the age verification bandwagon, requiring adults to prove they are adults

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Papers, please: In a few days, Italy will join a growing list of countries banning or restricting access to pornographic websites. Italian authorities in Rome say they aim to protect privacy and online safety with a double-check system. However, users seeking that content will likely find ways to bypass the blocks.

The Italian Communications Regulatory Agency (AGCOM) has introduced a new age verification rule for pornographic websites accessible within the country. Beginning November 12, a long list of sites – and the companies behind them – must comply with the law or face fines of up to €250,000.

The age verification requirement was already part of a law passed by the Italian government in 2023. The agency has now approved a new regulation (No. 96/25/CONS) to enforce it, including an initial list of websites and content providers that must comply with the rule.

The list includes several of the world's most popular porn sites, such as Pornhub, Xvideos, RedTube, and Xhamster. The regulation requires these companies to implement an age verification system to continue serving Italian users, or face hefty fines.

The system designed by AGCOM uses a "double anonymity" process intended to reassure even the most privacy-conscious users. Individuals must verify their age through a certified third party and receive a digital code, which they then use to access participating porn sites.

Porn sites will only see that a user is an adult, while the certified third-party verifier cannot track where users apply their codes. The regulator said users must complete this verification process every time they try to access a porn site. However, critics note that simply using the age verification code could expose a user's identity.

Italian authorities appear unconcerned, as the 2023 law and AGCOM's regulation are designed to "protect" children from adult content and entertainment. They seem to take the position that exposing users' identities in the name of child protection is an acceptable side effect.

Italy's new age verification system adds another layer to the growing wave of online censorship targeting porn and other adult websites. Countries such as France and the UK have already taken similar steps, prompting users to turn to VPNs, ID check workarounds, or non-compliant sites.

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Italy jumps on the age verification bandwagon, requiring adults to prove they are adults

 

[TheBigT42]

Big Brother is here. Next governments will start requiring an implant or tattoo on either your right-hand or forehead to make any kind of purchase.

 

[3volv3d]

I think that's good move from them. Coz this way the can ensure to keep their kids from wrong content

Except that the article said VPN boom, also free VPNs ?
And wrong content? Does this include gore content that has more chance to lead to violence I would have thought.
Which younger work colleagues told me infested their Instagram feeds and the likes so popular social media needs to do something their end too?
Gambling?

Big Brother is here. Next governments will start requiring an implant or tattoo on either your right-hand or forehead to make any kind of purchase.

Not quite with all purchases in the UK being monitored, you can't take more than £200 cash out a week from a cash machine without them checking you for money laundering.
The Brit-coin that Sunak wanted so you can't buy your illegal weed.

They take away your freedoms so they can sell them back to you in the forms of permits.

 

[Axeia]

I think that's good move from them. Coz this way the can ensure to keep their kids from wrong content

If you had internet access during your teens think back to this days. Would this have stopped you from accessing anything?

Now teens nowadays are a lot less tech savvy, only knowing how to operate a smartphone and all the limitations that come with it.. but still this will do nearly nothing.

If one site asks for id you go onto the next, and next and next etc until it works.

Really want something from that specific site? An online proxy gets you there.
Visit frequently and want it to work smoothly a vpn will do the trick.

More know how required per step but this isn't going to stop anyone. On the flip side the id or other verification steps being provided by regular adults result in all kinds of new ways to exploit that.

Sounds good on paper, achieves nothing positive in reality. At best a waste of time of everyone involved. At worst your curiosity about some weird fetish gets publicised and your life gets ruined. Lose-lose

 

[Kirby1]

Id like to see some real information on exactly what teens are being protected from? In all these debates about porn online, I never see any mention of data or studies about how this actually impacts teens. It may be a little off color to say this but I think my teenage years would have been a lot harder without access to porn. It offers a relatively safe and private way for teens who, despite not being adults, are at peak hormone levels compared to any other time in their life. I would imagine that if teens really suddenly stopped being able to get to porn online, there could be downsides like increased sexual violence or higher rates of teen pregnancy.

IMO it's always been one of those things where there just isn't a perfect solution, but in a world where everything is sexualized for marketing purposes I think it's important for people to have an outlet when they get to the age where their hormones are peaking. I mean, we will give teens birth control and usually they can get it on their own because we as a society understand that teens are going to have sex no matter if we like it or not, so at least we can prevent teen pregnancy, but those same teens can't look at some naked people? Like I said, no perfect solution.

When I was a teen, it was a lot worse in terms of running into bad stuff. I saw things online no one should see just trying to download pretty standard stuff. Now, at least there are well established outlets that filter out the really bad stuff, so generally if a teen goes to a porn site they are just going to see a lot of tits and ***, but nothing that will scar them for life. On top of that our parents had no idea how this stuff worked at the time, but that is definitely not true today.

 

[unoficialoficial]

The kids will simply store porn on their phones. They don't care about children; they want to force you to take on heavy legal liability by giving your id.

The most intelligent people are in business, while politics absorbs the rest.

 

[GhostLegion]

Id like to see some real information on exactly what teens are being protected from? In all these debates about porn online, I never see any mention of data or studies about how this actually impacts teens. It may be a little off color to say this but I think my teenage years would have been a lot harder without access to porn. It offers a relatively safe and private way for teens who, despite not being adults, are at peak hormone levels compared to any other time in their life. I would imagine that if teens really suddenly stopped being able to get to porn online, there could be downsides like increased sexual violence or higher rates of teen pregnancy.

It’s difficult to do a high quality study with no control group. Find me some teens that haven’t looked at hard-core pornography. The most you can really do is try to design a study using natural experiments.

I’ll also just say that I don’t really think porn is in any way beneficial. It’s a vice like any other. Just like cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. You can’t eliminate it but restricting its usage is of social benefit.