Ofcom Bans Non-Credit Card Holders from Viewing Internet Porn…Britain’s major adult VOD website fined 60,000 for failing to comply with unviably restrictive age verification requirements

Read more ATVOD Watch at MelonFarmers.co.uk

So how can the depiction of something so basic to life, something that nearly everybody does and enjoy, something that everybody is well educated about from an early age, and something that is so commonly discussed in so many social circles, be so ‘seriously’ harmful? Ofcom and ATVOD speak of a ‘precautionary’ approach to age protection because of a lack of evidence or experts suggesting that porn actually ‘is’ seriously harmful. Undesirable maybe, but ‘seriously’ harmful? See article [pdf] from stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk

Strictly Broadband, once a major British Video on Demand website has been fined ฃ 60,000 for breaches of the Authority for Television On Demand ( ATVOD ) Statutory Rules for Providers of Video on Demand. In particular ATVOD Rule 11: If an on-demand programme service contains material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen, the material must be made available in a manner which secures that such persons will not normally see or hear it. Thereby being supposedly in contravention of section 368E(2) of the Communications Act 2003 (the Act ). ATVOD interprets Rule 11 as requiring an effective Content Access Control System (CAC System) verifying the user is aged 18 or over where R18 equivalent material 3 is made available. They state that confirmation of ownership of a card where the card holder does not need to be 18 or over (such as a Debit, Solo or Electron card) would not be sufficient for this purpose. They also state that if age verification does not take place each time the user returns to the service, further access to such R18 content when the user returns to the service should be controlled by the use of mandatory security measures such as passwords or PIN numbers. ATVOD considered that the Service Provider had breached Rule 11 by having no CAC system in place in relation to free material on the Service, and no effective CAC system in relation to paid access material on the Service. The Service provided R18 equivalent material without adequate measures to ensure that those under 18 would not normally see or hear it. In particular ATVOD’s investigations of the Service found: a. R18 equivalent material available to view free without registration. The homepage of the Service (which appeared without a warning page as to the nature of the site’s content or other indication that the material was unsuitable for under 18s) included a significant quantity of free material including a banner window showing scrolling stills, a large number of thumbnail stills constituting links to available videos and movie trailers. These depicted R18 equivalent unsimulated sexual activity in explicit detail and could be viewed without registration or payment (i.e. there was no CAC System). b. R18 equivalent material available to view free with registration. On registration, users were provided with a free ticket to rent (i.e. view online) one full- length video for 14 days. Registered users could subsequently buy further tickets . Videos included material which was clearly R18 equivalent material involving unsimulated sexual activity in explicit detail. c. Lack of an effective Content Access Control system at point of purchase. Purchases could be made by debit card or SMS text message, neither of which did ATVOD consider to constitute an effective CAC System. The material available to purchase was R18 equivalent and extensive. The Service Provider replied to ATVOD on 4 October stating that the Service had been sold to an American company on 1 August 2012 and that the company Strictly Broadband Limited had been put into liquidation.