Re: New UK Regulations on Porn Sites, ATVOD & what it means
I don't want to post a link publicly so I have copied and pasted the OP from the thread. It contains all the relevant links:
It seems everyone is confused over this. AW are implementing an age verification procedure whereby ALL customers will have to verify that they are over 18. This comes into force on December 1st, or by January at the latest
http://www.adultwork.com/AgeVerificationInfo.asp
This has happened because an organisation called ATVOD (Authority for Television On Demand) are now in charge of policing anyone who provides an 'on-demand programme service' (ODPS) that is 'television like'. What constitutes an ODPS or what is television like is widely debatable and some providers targeted by ATVOD so far such as the domme site Urban Chick Supremacy Cell, have successfully appealed and won, while others including playboy tv (and even Sainsbury's!!!) have failed.
ATVOD use the BBFC R18 guidelines to determine what content is not appropriate for minors on the websites they police and they have decreed that all UK sites with such material must keep it completely out of view of minors, this includes still images, gifs, and videos. it does not currently include live cam feeds (although see further implications below).
ATVOD Guidance for providers
http://www.atvod.co.uk/uploads/files...ruary_2014.pdf
BBFC R18 Guidance (page 24)
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/...s 2014_5.pdf
ATVOD Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATVOD
Keeping it out of view of minors entails having strict age verification in place that goes beyond the usual "click here if you're over 18" entry page most adult websites have. They must either only accept credit cards or use a processor which does, like CCBill or Epoch (others are working on becoming atvod compliant currently). If they do not use such a processor then they must have another form of age verification in place such as asking for customer's ID, using a service which does this, or contact from an 18+ verified mobile phone.
Clips4Sale - currently accepts debit cards and does not have a secondary form of age verification in place. They also allow stills, gifs, and previews which are r18+ in free to view areas. This means they are NOT ATVOD compliant, and as a producer on c4s you would be in breach of their rules and referred to OFCOM and could be fined. A number of c4s stores have been targeted, especially those with extreme fetish & domme content.
Adultwork - is putting age verification in place, however because we are in full control of our own profiles there is some question as to who is the 'provider' here. If ATVOD decide that WE are the provider then WE are the ones liable to them for breaching any rules. It would be a breach of their rules to not be registered with them and have paid the fee for a producer license. Currently this looks like it's £91 for the smallest producers (us) and more info can be found here
http://www.atvod.co.uk/regulated-ser...egulatory-fees
At present no one seems to know regarding the AW score although AW are working to find out. If you are concerned it is worth contacting them, and also keeping up to date (and updating this thread) with what is decided.
Personal Sites - The same goes for your own private sites - you must keep anything r18+ behind an age verified payment gateway. you cannot accept debit cards unless you have a secondary age verification procedure in place. You must also register as a provider with ATVOD.
I am not paying anyone anything and plan to steer well clear of ATVOD unless it becomes clear that we absolutely have to register. If they target me I shall take it up with Backlash. As it seems none of the sites we work on are sure at the moment, then WE are in charge of keeping up to date and taking initiative over our own businesses. it's in our interests to find out what we need to do.
Further implications:
As ATVOD only covers sites within the UK they cannot do anything about US or other foreign sites. So they have 'suggested' to UK financial organisations like the banks and payment processors, that they might want to rethink association with any site which displays obscene material and is not ATVOD compliant . A meeting was held with the financial authorities on October 10th 2014. there is no information on this as yet but if it goes ahead it could take the form of a 'black list' of known sites (like what happened with piracy with pirate bay and megashare etc) which the banks and processors will block payment to.
ATVOD have also 'suggested' the same to the ISP's who could similarly block access to those sites, as BT do with pirate bay and other known piracy sites.
As MFC, SM, CB etc have free to view chat which is viewable by anyone they could well become 'off limits' to UK guys, which means girls with large UK fan bases working there will see a huge drop in income.
helpful organisations & contacts
If you are targeted by ATVOD you can contact Backlash, an organisation set up to promote freedom of sexual expression. They are the ones who helped Urban Chick Supremacy Cell appeal
http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/atvod/
obscenity Lawyer on twitter write very informative blog posts on a number of subjects including this and was at the XBiz conference with ATVOD
https://twitter.com/obscenitylawyer
Collected info on ATVOD so far
http://www.xbiz.com/news/europe/187868
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2916/pdfs/uksi_20142916_en.pdf
http://sexandcensorship.org/2014/11/...-1st-december/
) Spanking??? They cite "inherent danger" as the reason for outlawing some of these things, but honestly, the list itself and the effect it has on my blood pressure is a greater danger than anything listed on it.
