After a prolonged reading of the government’s abysmal Online Harms Bill, released yesterday, it looks like Guido’s finally spotted some good news: the porn laws are being dropped. Clause 131 of the bill repeals Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 – the act that introduced Theresa May’s age verification for online porn providers, though which was never implemented. The repeal specifies Dowden will no longer have the obligation to issue a code of practice of providers of online social media platforms. The ASI, however, hail it as a “pyrrhic victory” given the wider anti-freedom losses from the Online Harms Bill…
One person who won’t be happy about the scrapping is the executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, a group currently trying to sue the government for not implementing the 2017 porn block. Just before lockdown was introduced, they announced plans to take ministers to the high court and force them to introduce the ban. Executive director Iain Corby claims he’s trying to protect children, writing “The same groups say we should let parents solve the problem, but a parent can no more supervise all cybersurfing than they can go with a child on each visit to a newsagent.”
Corby’s Hyacinth Bucket-esque ‘save the children’ moralising will come as a particular surprise to many Westminster insiders, who will mostly remember him from headlines in 2014 when he resigned as head of the Tory Parliamentary Research Unit (PRU) after using Grindr to boast of “cute boys” and sexual antics in his conference penthouse – funded by Tory MPs’ expenses. In one message Corby boasted:
“Sharing with two colleagues but I chose the cutest boys from my team!”
When Guido first revealed the news of Corby’s resignation from Parliament, the official announcement claimed it was because he wanted to “return to the commercial world”. He clearly succeeded, and now finds himself heading an overly moralistic pro-porn blocker lobby firm. Guido’s glad he’s cleaned up his own behaviour, it’s just a shame he’s trying to police everybody else’s…
Hard political times over the last few years clearly left tired and stressed Downing Street staffers reaching for the tissues at times, though not to console an emotional Theresa May. New Freedom of Information request data seen by Guido reveals devices logged into No. 10’s wifi attempted to access hardcore porn websites 2,300 times in the three years between November 2016 and November 2019. For some reason the data stops after Boris moved in…
While the vast majority of attempted r-rated visits came from “guest” devices – what No. 10 attributes to “non-civil servants who are present in the building for various events, such as training.”, 94 of the 2,300 attempts came from full-time employees. The FoI request specified visits to sites including Pornhub, Redtube, Xhamster, Youporn, extremetube and literotica – the last of which proved most popular with 637 successful viewings during the three years…
Given the data covers almost all of Theresa May’s time in office, it’s ironic that a ministry attempting to introduce an internet porn ban completely failed to keep its own affairs in order: despite the Cabinet Office claiming there are filters in place to ban access to adult sites, Guido’s sums show 63% of the requests slipped through the net. Guido guesses Philip had to keep himself occupied somehow…
The Government is continuing to have a hard time getting their ludicrous Porn Laws through, this morning Jeremy Wright came to the Commons to confirm Guido’s report from last month that the Porn Laws will not be coming into force on 15th July. The problem apparently is that DCMS forgot to notify the EU of the change in the law, a cock-up which Wright says he only noticed last Friday, meaning the turgid legislation will be delayed for at least a further six months. Beautifully sums up May’s dire premiership – she can’t even get her grossly authoritarian legislation enacted because she hasn’t managed to leave the EU…
If anything this looks like a convenient excuse for ministers who have belatedly realised just how counterproductive and unenforceable the legislation will be, not to mention how deeply unpopular it will be when the unsuspecting public get caught with their pants down. Guido has spoken to MPs and ministers who were genuinely taken aback when they realised just how much of a mess the Government’s bone-headed policy is. DCMS won’t give a hard deadline following this third delay, by the time a new PM takes over the legislation will be so limp they should just toss it out…
Theresa May’s porn block was originally set to be introduced last year, first it was delayed to the start of April 2019 and then moved back again to July 15. Now the Daily Star is reporting that it could be delayed yet again after Government figures acknowledged they will be unable to enforce the totalitarian Porn Laws if browsers such as Firefox and Chrome roll out DNS encryption, which both major browsers are reportedly working on. Kleenex shareholders will be breathing sighs of relief…
The freedom lovers at the Adam Smith Institute are naturally very pleased too:
“A delay isn’t quite a drop, but this dreadful policy is clearly losing support in government as MPs wake up to the reality of how unpopular blocking their constituents’ porn is. The next leader has to be someone who understands the state has no business in how voters choose to get busy.”
The last thing that’s going to endear politicians to voters when they’re having time to themselves is the hand of the state reaching in instead…
Theresa May may have failed to get Brexit through but at least she’ll still be leaving behind a momentous legacy – banning plastic straws and blocking porn sites. Guido brings you the pictures you don’t want to see – what adult websites in the UK will look like after the Porn Laws come in on 15th July:
It’s not like there’s been a spate of large-scale personal data breaches over recent years which could cause any issues with linking people’s individual ‘browsing’ habits with specific user IDs. Nor will there be hundreds of scammers waiting in the wings to set up fake websites to steal gullible punters’ credit card details. Tech-savvy teenagers will simply get round it with VPNs, it’s older users who are more likely to end up in a sticky situation. Or not…
The Government has announced that its authoritarian internet porn ban will be coming into force on 15th July. People in Britain will need to hand over their credit card details or buy a government-approved porn pass from a newsagent from £8.99 to access online porn from then. Tech-savvy Generation Z-ers will just get round it with a VPN…
Digital Minister Margot James says: “We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this.” Combined with the Government’s impending assault on the wider internet and its latest genius plans to crack down on… Netflix and Amazon Video, the UK is rapidly becoming the most repressive democracy in the world to be online.
The Adam Smith Institute’s Matthew Lesh says “This scheme, that requires linking of people’s identity to their online adult viewing habits, will seriously threaten our privacy, be a massive gift to scammers, and won’t even work. Young people will just get around it, and end up being exposed to more hardcore material.” The Government’s sledgehammer approach to the internet is what you’d expect from an authoritarian regime like China or Saudi Arabia, not the liberal democracy that invented it…
