Online porn filters will never work

For the past year and a half, the UK government has been promising a solution to the problem of underage people accidentally or even intentionally watching porn on the internet: a nationwide age verification system that would require would-be porn consumers to demonstrate their adulthood before accessing adult content.

The proposal — more formally known as the Digital Economy Act of 2017 — is not the first time the UK has attempted a nationwide solution to the problem of underage porn access. A few years ago, the country attempted to block adult sites at the ISP level, requiring users to opt in to access adult content. Unfortunately, that block was not as seamless as originally intended; among other issues, it ended up blocking far more...

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