What the New UK Adult Film Verification Means for You and How to Beat It!
After years of parents, children’s charities, politicians and various other social bodies voicing concern about how easy it is for children to access adult films and content online, new laws are now being put in place to help protect minors from being able to access it. The vast majority of minors are not yet equipped with the life experience to understand adult content in its proper context (“these performers are professionals, don’t try this at home people”), the Government has realised it cannot kick this issue into the long-grass anymore and has finally decided to take action.
Designed to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent under-18s from being able to freely watch pornography on the internet, the Digital Economy Act 2017 (Part 3) comes into effect this year. (Reference 1)
If you’re reading this and thinking this new law doesn’t affect you because you’re over 18, you’re wrong.
This piece of legislation will change the way that everyone in the UK who uses the internet to watch adult films continues to watch them. Including the 359% rise in female watchers too.
The new UK Over-18 Verification System – what it means?
What it means is watching adult films online for everyone in the UK just got a lot less anonymous.
Lawmakers have finally arrived at the same conclusion that everyone else with common sense has known for years; most of the popular porn sites either have no age-checking systems in place or ones that have been (and still are) so easy to bypass they might as well not exist. Did the token gesture “yes, I am 18 or older” button really ever stop anyone?
Even the sites making users create a user-name and password will find their efforts are nowhere near robust enough.
From late 2019, anyone who wishes to watch adult films online will need to provide proof-of-age before any site lets them access explicit content.
How the new UK Over-18 Adult Film Verification System will work?
The UK Government has given the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – the organisation responsible for deciding whether a film is rated PG, 15, 18, etc – the role of being the Age Verification Regulator; basically being the Big Brother making sure porn sites abide by these new rules. (Reference 2)
Given that the BBFC has the power to fine rule breakers up to £250,000, websites would be foolish not to comply. In addition to that, Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and mobile networks will be required to block websites that break the law. (Reference 3)
What the BBFC is compelling these websites to do is link-up with a third-party Online Age Verification Provider before allowing them to be accessed by internet users in the UK. Then, for UK internet users to access these websites they will need to provide their details to an Online Age Verification Provider (by uploading a photo-ID that includes their date of birth).
Only after getting the green light from an Online Age Verification Provider, will the user be able to go onto the website and view its content.
What data will explicit sites need to verify my age?
As stated above, technically it won’t be the actual film sites that you verify your age with, it will be the Age Verification Provider they use.
But to answer the question, considering the severe punishments for companies caught using slack age verification procedures, you will need to provide as much information as is required. Typically, this will mean uploading and submitting a copy of your passport or photo-ID driving license.
If you don’t want an Age Verification Company to know what you look like, then you can provide them with your credit card details.
Is registering my details with one of these online Age Verification Providers safe?
If we tell you ‘it is safe’ and your sensitive information falls into the wrong hands, you’ll damn us. If we tell you it’s unsafe, many will accuse us of promoting scare stories. So the only thing we can say for sure is that it’s too soon to tell.
Whilst the BBFC has certified a small number of Age Verification Providers, at the time of writing there is no legal requirement for these sites to use these particular Age Verification Providers. If a site wishes to use an Age Verification Provider that has not been vetted and certified by the BBFC, they are perfectly entitled to do so until the legislation forces them to act otherwise.
Even if (hypothetically) every explicit site was to use a certified Age Verification Provider that is no guarantee of user-safety. Yes, their security might be more advanced than an Age Verification Provider that’s uncertified but all that means in today’s world is its security system is more resistant to run-of-the-mill cyber-attacks.
If the biggest companies in the world, across all sectors from retail-to-banking-to-social media, can have their websites compromised by sophisticated hackers, then the risk of a certified Age Verification Provider experiencing a data breach is just as real. Such as the Ashley Madison leak in 2015.
What, you think the people working for these Age Verification Companies are smarter than the collective brainpower working at Ebay, Facebook, and WhatsApp? (just three of the many companies who in recent years have had to go public with the news no user of their services wants to hear: your personal information might have been stolen, please change your login information at once)
Furthermore, because there is more than one Age Verification Provider, you may have to upload a scan of your photo-ID (or disclose your credit card details) to multiple Age Verification Providers, certainly, if you’re someone who watches adult content on more than one website and those sites don’t all align themselves with the same Age Verification Provider.
How else can I access hard-core content without giving a website my details?
If you’re starting to get a sense this new stricter way of making people watch adult films on the internet, as well-intentioned as it is, has the potential to cause its users a headache or two, then you’re far from alone.
The only cast-iron way to keep your habits 100% private is to not view them on a computer, or at the very least a computer that is not connected to the internet.
This is why a large percentage of consumers still prefer their adult films on DVD. Just like some music lovers prefer vinyl and CD to a streaming or download service, a DVD gives you all the benefits of watching a movie without any of the potential security concerns, even a so-called lesser one like infecting your computer with adware.
UK Sex Shops – how to access adult film DVDs
All hard-core DVDs that are (legally) available in the UK must be certified by the BBFC before being released, hence why all DVDs we stock carry an R18 logo on the artwork (the ‘R’ standing for ‘restricted’, as in due to the explicit nature of the material it can only be supplied and sold in restricted circumstances, like a licensed sex shop). (Reference 4)
Contrary to popular belief, it is illegal to purchase R18 DVDs from mail order and internet outlets. If you purchase hard-core DVDs using one of these methods and your package is spot-checked by Royal Mail or H.M. Revenue & Customs, not only will your DVDs be confiscated but you may well find yourself getting fined (or worse).
The only way to legally buy hard-core DVDs in the UK is by purchasing a DVD from a licensed sex shop, including all 19 bricks-n-mortar branches of Pulse & Cocktails.
Image of our porn section at our Rotherham store.
To enter any of our shops you must be 18 or older, so if you have just turned 18 or if you’re lucky enough to look younger than 25, please bring photo ID that confirms your date of birth, otherwise our staff will have to turn you away, whether you’re buying or merely browsing.
Pulse & Cocktails UK Porn Selection
In a nutshell, if it’s certified R18 by the BBFC then we sell it. Of course, that’s not to say we currently have in stock every R18 film the BBFC has ever certified …
… but, since we’ve been trading since 1997 and adult films were only legalised in the year 2000, there’s a good chance we have had every R18 DVD enter-and-leave our doors at some point in time.
Whilst the bad news is we have no more copies of Debbie Does Dallas, the good news is you can be sure of us having 1000-plus hard-core titles for you to choose from.
So whether you’re searching for a movie to watch alone or with a partner; a film that has been made with gentle lighting and sex that has been shot to convey a sensual intimate vibe, or you’re after a hedonistic piece of debauchery that subscribes to the idea of ‘go hard or go home’, we will most likely have something to help you scratch that itch.
In fact, if you enter any of our stores today we will be able to offer you a small number of categories that had you visited us before January 2019, we wouldn’t have been able to sell. While one piece of legislation is quite rightfully making it much more difficult for children to view adult material, another law has finally been modified to reflect a more common-sense approach to Government by treating adults like adults. (Reference 5)
In January 2019, the Government altered what sexual material falls foul of the Obscene Publications Act. Prior to this law change, the BBFC would not have granted an R18 certificate to any scene or entire film that contained the act of fisting or the ‘harder’, more consensually-torturous S&M. Also, it would have only allowed in very limited circumstances films that contained peeing and female ejaculation (aka ‘squirting’) to enter the UK market on the condition that said peeing or squirting does not go on (or inside) any of the other performers in the scene. Now, as long as everyone has consented to these acts occurring during the scene prior to shooting, pee and squirt wherever and on whomever.
Adult DVD offers
Inside every Pulse & Cocktails UK sex store, you will not only discover plenty of titles covering a wide variety of categories/genres, but also multiple price-points to suit different budgets.
All of our Standard and Premium priced DVDs form part of a multi-buy deal that means whenever you buy a DVD (or DVDs) from any of our stores you also get a magazine.
Multi-buy magazines & Standard DVDs
1 DVD & 1 multi-buy magazine = £25.00.
3 DVDs & 3 multi-buy magazines = £50.00.
7 DVDs & 3 multi-buy magazines = £100.00.
11 DVDs & 3 multi-buy magazines = £150.00.
16 DVDs & 3 multi-buy magazines = £200.00.
Premium-priced DVDs
A small selection of our DVDs are known in-store as ‘Premium Titles’ and are £5.00 more than our Standard £25.00 DVDs.
That doesn’t mean Premium Titles are excluded from the multi-buy magazine & DVD deals (priced above), what it simply means is for every Premium Title a customer selects to add an additional £5.00 to the total cost.
Example: if a customer decides to purchase 3 DVDs as part of our 3 DVDs/3 multi-buy magazines deal, and one of the DVDs is a Premium Title, the total cost would be £55.00 instead of £50.00.
Example: say a customer decides to go for our 7 DVDs/3 multi-buy magazines deal and two of the DVDs they select are Premium Titles, the total cost would be £110.00 instead of £100.00.
Part-exchange DVD scheme
What’s great about our standard and premium-priced DVDs, the former accounting for roughly 85 – 90% of the DVDs we stock, is customers have the option of either keeping the DVDs forever (as you do when buying a book or CD) or they can use the DVDs they’ve brought from us to take advantage of our part-exchange scheme and trade them in when making their next DVD purchase, resulting in them not having to pay full price for their next film(s).
Some of our customers prefer to keep the DVDs they buy from us; maybe they’re fans of a particular company or performer, or just really enjoyed the film. Others prefer to part-exchange their DVDs after they’ve watched them a couple of times.
Red-spot adult DVDs
As you can imagine, plenty of adult films have been released over the years. So occasionally, just like every other retail sector, we have to reduce-to-clear some stock from time to time. Our reduced deals are as follows:
3 red-spot DVDs & 1 multi-buy magazine = £25.00.
9 red-spot DVDs & 3 multi-buy magazines = £50.00.
An exciting alternative to adult DVDs
Even though watching adult content on DVD is much more private and secure than watching online, it’s sometimes tricky to store these DVDs discreetly in the home.
Whether you have children charging around the house, rummaging through drawers you were sure they couldn’t reach, or you share accommodation with friends and would just rather keep some things to yourself, the artwork rarely leaves any mystery surrounding the film’s subject matter. Sometimes even the disc itself can have an explicit image on it.
This is where our Pre-Loaded USB Movie Sticks can save the day. Not only are they a lot smaller than a DVD disc, making storage more convenient, even if someone else did stumble upon it the chances of them knowing it contained pornographic content is remote as none of the USB sticks contain any information about the movies that have been loaded onto it (apart from a small R18 symbol that has to be there by law).
1 Pre-Loaded USB Movie Stick (3 films on each stick) = £35.00.
Each USB stick contains 3 pre-loaded, full-length R18-rated movies (£11.66 per film!). The fast USB 2.0 stick will ensure smooth playback with no buffering.
No internet connection is required, the movie stick leaves no digital footprint, and can be used with any device that has a USB port as well as any Android device using a USB to micro-USB adaptor (not included).
How to buy anonymously in the UK
At Pulse and Cocktails, you can purchase adult films completely anonymously in any one of our 19 UK sex stores. We understand that your personal information is extremely important and it is essential to keep it safe and secure at all times. When you buy adult films or any other products in one of our stores we don’t keep any personal information on you. Here are a few benefits when you purchase from a Pulse and Cocktails UK sex store:
- Less hassle than verifying your age online
- All DVD’s certified by the BBFC
- A wide variety of DVD’s & lockable USB sticks
- We do not require any of your personal data
- Exchange program to make DVD’s more affordable (see offers above)
- Thousands of titles to choose from
- Friendly staff to help you find everything you’re looking for
- Treat yourself to lubricant and discover our wide range of incredible sex toys to really enhance your experience!
If you want to keep your identity anonymous and enjoy a huge range of titles to choose from, click here to find your closest Pulse and Cocktails store.
References
- Legislation.gov.uk; Digital Economy Act 2017 Part 3 Online Pornography, publishing date and writer information not given.
- British Board of Film Classification website (BBFC – Age Verification Regulator Department); home page, publishing date and writer information not given.https://www.ageverificationregulator.com/ 2
- Chronicle Live; UK ‘Porn Block’ date confirmed – this is when pornography will be automatically blocked, written by Simon Meechan, 18th April 2019.https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/uk-porn-block-change-laws-15979189 3
- British Board of Film Classification website; R18, publishing date and writer information not given.https://bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/r18 4
- BBC website; Obscene porn rules relaxed in England and Wales, written by Chris Fox, 31st January 2019.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47069414 5