The UK may require facial scans before accessing online pornography and adult content – -.

The British government has long fought an uphill battle to better protect young people from accessing adult material, such as pornography, on the Internet. Although there have been several initiatives in the past to improve Internet safety for young people, for the most part they have not had much impact, but the latest could be significantly different.

Because Ofcom has published a new set of guidelines aimed at cracking down on adult content on the Internet. The process for doing so includes the ability to require a facial scan before accessing adult content, as well as by essentially forcing adult content providers to comply or risk huge fines in the country, amounting to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, whichever is higher.

As for why Ofcom is again taking such a strict stance on the issue, the organization also included a few snippets of information regarding how and when young people first access adult content, stating that the average age at which someone first views pornography online is 13 and that about a quarter come into contact with it at age 11, with 1 in 10 at age 9.

Some of the other methods Ofcom is investigating include open sharing of bank details (which seems like a recipe for major fraud), age verification from mobile network operators, credit card checks and digital identity portfolios. This is all because current terms and conditions and disclaimers and self-declaration of age efforts are far from effective.

Do you think this is the right move?