The Digital Economy Bill will now go on for review at the House of Lords, the Belfast Telegraph reports. In addition to the special age verification system, the law includes other features that sound like they were ripped out of a George Orwell book—and may not even be effective in achieving their intended aim.
The proposed law also makes provisions for increased data-sharing, restricting access to online commercial pornography, and altering the county’s electronic communications infrastructure and services, according to the UK Parliament.
Free speech advocates and security experts argue that pornographic material banned by the bill could still be made available via non-adult outlets such as Twitter, according to the news outlet, and that the age verifications could jeopardize UK residents’ cybersafety.
Matt Hancock, UK Culture Minister, said that the changes will protect children under a more robust regime, even though the proposed measures do not add up to a “utopia,” the Belfast Telegraph reports.
And there are other, less threatening features of the bill, such as entitling consumers to a minimum internet speed, updated regulations dealing with telecommunications infrastructure, and modernized intellectual property statutes for digital industries, according to the Commons Library analysis of the Digital Economy Bill.
For his part, Ed Vaizey, former UK Minister for the Digital Economy said following publication of the bill that it would “provide the necessary framework to make sure we remain world leaders” at the frontier of technological change.
