In a statement published yesterday, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) revealed that FSC Executive Director Alison Boden “delivered the keynote presentation at a meeting on age verification hosted by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator,” earlier this month.
According to FSC, the “first-of-its-kind event was designed to facilitate discussion with the adult industry on Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act (OSA), including the age assurance and illegal content requirements for adult content platforms,” both of which are expected to come into effect in early 2025.
FSC said in the statement that Boden’s “keynote on the age verification mandates being passed in the US focused on the many reasons that they should not act as a model for other jurisdictions.”
“Setting aside the unconstitutionality of the US laws, Boden highlighted the bizarre ways content is defined, patchwork of age verification mechanisms prescribed, and disproportionate enforcement methods authorized by the 19 state age verification statutes in the US,” FSC added. “Boden outlined the serious barriers to compliance with these laws, including the enormous cost of implementing age verification services and the near-total refusal of consumers to age-verify to access adult content.”
Boden concluded her remarks with “four suggestions for regulators,” FSC said:
- Make compliance requirements extremely clear and realistic for websites
- Make efforts to improve consumer trust in age assurance
- Take action to limit competitive advantage of non-compliance
- Reduce the financial burden on businesses
“If regulators want to keep minors from accessing age-inappropriate material, it’s essential that our industry be at the table,” Boden said. “Regulations that are unevenly applied, that discourage compliance, and are rejected by consumers will inevitably fail. I’m thankful to Ofcom for inviting me, and to those in our industry who joined me to help educate the regulators.”
As noted in the statement, earlier this year FSC “submitted a detailed critique of the age assurance guidance proposed by Ofcom under the OSA, which requires sites to ensure that ‘children cannot normally encounter’ pornographic content by implementing some form of age assurance technology.” The event earlier this month was “designed to facilitate discussion on the proposed regulations,” FSC had commented on in March.
According to FSC, the event was “attended by representatives from a variety of platforms that host adult content and began with remarks from Ofcom’s Online Safety Group Director,” who “related that the regulator hoped to create a ‘no surprises’ compliance and enforcement regime that harmonizes with international standards and best practices.”
“In her closing remarks, the Online Safety Supervision Director announced that Ofcom will be launching an awareness campaign in the fall to inform the industry about their obligations under the OSA,” FSC noted. “To facilitate this, Ofcome has created a one-stop landing page for adult content platforms at ofcom.org.uk/adultsonly with the proposals themselves, as well as ways to check whether the rules apply to your website. Platforms are encouraged to provide Ofcom’s Porn Supervision team with feedback.”
FSC closed the statement by noting the organization is “pleased that, unlike the vast majority of policymakers, Ofcom is making a concerted effort to engage with the industry to understand our concerns.”
“We hope that this will result in a workable policy for adult content websites and encourage all FSC members to reach out to Ofcom with feedback on how the requirements will affect their businesses,” FSC said.
