There is a bit of confusion, because this law was effectively dropped in 2019 but then resurrected and passed in 2023.
Enforcement is due to start in 2025, with Ofcom currently exploring feedback from industry and users.
People will be supposed to authenticate with official ID (passport, driving license, etc) when connecting to porn sites from the UK. Obviously the VPN market is already on the case - the question really is whether the porn industry will fight VPNs, which is unlikely. The biggest sites will likely just go for token efforts to show goodwill.
The end result is likely to be a growth in VPNs (which will also affect the other big internet-censorship tool from the UK government: silent DNS blocking) and more traffic getting diverted from highly-visible and highly-moderated sites (e.g. Pornhub) to smaller, rogue sites where everything goes. So an own goal, in practice; but pearl-clutchers won't be happy until the whole web resembles a sanitized Disneyland park, so expect even worse laws.
Enforcement is due to start in 2025, with Ofcom currently exploring feedback from industry and users.
People will be supposed to authenticate with official ID (passport, driving license, etc) when connecting to porn sites from the UK. Obviously the VPN market is already on the case - the question really is whether the porn industry will fight VPNs, which is unlikely. The biggest sites will likely just go for token efforts to show goodwill.
The end result is likely to be a growth in VPNs (which will also affect the other big internet-censorship tool from the UK government: silent DNS blocking) and more traffic getting diverted from highly-visible and highly-moderated sites (e.g. Pornhub) to smaller, rogue sites where everything goes. So an own goal, in practice; but pearl-clutchers won't be happy until the whole web resembles a sanitized Disneyland park, so expect even worse laws.