The UK's new online age verification system has an unintended consequence

Psychologist Dr Sam Carr reveals how the new age checks are making us stop and think before accessing porn, and why our brains could thank us for it

- By Dr Sam Carr

Porn in the UK just entered a new era. Thanks to the large-scale Online Safety Act interventions, gone are the days of simply ticking a box to say you're over 18. Instead, since the end of July, anyone wanting to view such content must now pass stricter age checks by entering their credit card details, uploading photo ID or even using artificial intelligence-based facial scans.

The aim of all this, according to the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is to keep children away from content that “would previously have been considered extreme” but has “become part of mainstream online pornography”.

“When young people access this material,” the DCMS adds, “it risks normalising behaviour that might be harmful to their future emotional and psychological development.”

But the impact of the Act isn’t limited to young people. For adults, the new delays mean pornography is no longer simply a click away. The age verification interruptions, however small, are already prompting some habitual pornography users to pause, reflect and reconsider their choices. And that could be a good thing.

DRAWING THE LINE

Before anything else, we need to address the elephant in the room: how can a person tell if they watch ‘too much’ pornography? This can be challenging as defining what counts as ‘normal’ is notoriously difficult. Frequency, context and personal impact vary widely between people. As French psychologist Dr Florian Vörös points out, “addiction to pornography” is not an exact science with fixed boundaries, but “a malleable concept developing out of a melting pot of different knowledge and beliefs.”