An online passport would not only fail to stop children from watching porn – it would be the most intrusive identity scheme of all. The UK Government’s announcement this week that children will be better protected from online porn has been warmly welcomed. The problem is, it’s incredibly hard to enforce such steps online because it creates serious privacy and fraud risks, and is unlikely to achieve the goal of protecting children. Commercial porn websites could indeed request credit card details to grant users access. But, there’s little to stop a child from using a parents’ or older sibling’s card details.
