LONDON – Multinational adult entertainment conglomerate MindGeek has become the boogeyman in the contentious U.K. debate about age-verification and internet porn.
Beginning in April 2018, adult websites must verify all U.K. citizens requesting access are age 18 or older. Websites that don’t verify ages face possible financial processing sanctions, fines of U.S. $300,000 or 5 percent of their profits (whichever is greater) and/or blocking by internet service providers. The rules and penalties apply regardless in what country a site is located and whether or not it charges for access.
U.K. Digital Minister Matt Hancock set the deadline last week, pursuant to the vague terms outlined in the Digital Economy Act 2017. Still to be determined are the mechanism for age verification and what agency or organization will oversee compliance. Most assume the British Board of Film Classification will be named regulator, but proposed mechanisms have free-speech advocates, privacy campaigners and anti-porn activists alike in an uproar.
At the center of the commotion, likely not of its own volition, sits MindGeek. The company was among the early proponents of a “frictionless” system proposed by the Adult Provider Network, a trade association for U.K. porn producers. The system would not rely on credit cards (which at present are considered the most likely age-verification IDs), but instead would use databases already maintained by mobile operators, banks, credit-rating agencies, the National Health Service, the Department of Work and Britain’s postal service. Recently, the electoral register was added to the list.
Allegedly, MindGeek — which labels itself a “technology company” (wink, wink; nudge, nudge) — offered to create and run such a system for the government. The government said, essentially, “don’t call us; we’ll call you.”
All of that took place in early 2016. MindGeek hasn’t been mentioned again.
Then Hancock set the date compliance must begin. Now, the company has become everyone’s concern, evidently based solely on last year’s speculation.
Free speech advocates worry that contracting with a civilian outfit to run a so-called age-verification system gives the government “plausible deniability” in the face of censorship accusations but actually does nothing to protect the citizenry from censorship.
While anti-porn activists like the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children generally are in favor of the strictest possible age-verification process, they worry allowing an adult entertainment company to provide the service is akin to asking a fox to guard the henhouse. (As of yet, no adult entertainment company has made public a desire, much less a plan, to create a system.)
But privacy campaigners compose the loudest voice so far, expressing deep concern about the potential for exposure of porn consumers’ private data.
Jon Lawrence, executive officer for advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Australia, told News.com.au there is “potential for real damage” if porn consumption sites are linked to electoral data. No matter who controls the process, the resulting age-verification database could be breached and sensitive information leaked online.
The Open Rights Group in the U.K. shares that concern, particularly should MindGeek be named guardian of the database. Executive Director Jim Killock warned a massive porn company’s massive collection of U.K. porn viewers’ details would be too tempting a target for hackers. He invoked the 2015 Ashley Madison debacle, in which personally identifiable information about millions of people seeking extramarital affairs was exposed, ruining careers, marriages and lives.
“The government has repeatedly refused to ensure that there is a legal duty for age-verification providers to protect the privacy of web users,” Killock told the Daily Record.
But that’s not all that worries Killock. He expressed concern that vesting so much power over online commerce in one entity would serve no one’s best interests.
“There is nothing [in the law or proposed enforcement system] to ensure a free and fair market for age verification,” he said. “We are concerned that the porn company MindGeek will become the Facebook of age verification, dominating the U.K. market. They would then decide what privacy risks or profiling take place for the vast majority of U.K. citizens.”
