Later this month, Italian residents could have one additional step to undergo earlier than getting on porn websites. On Friday, Italy’s regulatory company for communications, generally known as AGCOM, introduced an age verification system that is meant to forestall minors from accessing web sites with pornographic content material. The initial list of web sites covers round 50 websites, together with Pornhub, XHamster and OnlyFans.

The brand new rule would require customers to get verified by way of “licensed third events,” which may very well be one other firm, financial institution or cellular operator that already has the related information. As soon as the third occasion verifies the person’s age, it is going to concern a code that grants entry to the porn web site. Whereas the laws’s acknowledged aim is to forestall hurt to minors, the age verification course of makes use of a “double anonymity” system to quell privateness issues. To be able to defend person privateness, porn websites can solely see if a person is of age and never their identification, whereas the third-party verifier can solely see the person’s identification and never the web site they’re attempting to get on.

In keeping with the laws, customers have to do that every time they attempt to get on affected porn websites. AGCOM mentioned the brand new rule goes into impact on November 12, and any porn websites which might be discovered non-compliant may very well be hit with penalties of as much as 250,000 euros.

Italy is the newest within the European Union to implement age verification guidelines, after France put a similar system into place in the summertime. Simply exterior the EU, the UK additionally lately launched its personal age verification process that requires both a selfie or authorities ID. Since then, Pornhub mentioned that UK guests to its web site have plummeted 77 percent.