The government wants to ban porn in the UK unless web sites verify users' ages

The UK government has drafted legislation that would require internet service providers to block pornographic web sites if they do not verify users' ages. The intent of the law is to prevent children from seeing adult material on the web.

Free speech advocates will be disappointed to discover that the proposed law has support among both Conservative and Labour MPs, according to The Guardian.

The proposal would apply to all web sites globally - meaning that sites that do not require age checks would be blocked from view in the UK.

The proposed legislation is a radical extension of current British law, which requires internet users to register with their ISPs whether they want adult content blocked or not. In 2014, the government banned outright types of porn that feature violent criminal acts.

It is not clear how such a law would be enforced. Virtual private network services like Hola, which can be added easily to your web browser, make it simple to browse the internet as if you are in another country - thus unblocking sites that are otherwise "banned" in any single country.

It is also unclear how such a ban would affect services like Tumblr or Twitter, which are not porn sites per se but nonetheless contain a huge amount of erotic material.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will be the regulatory agency in charge of enforcing the porn ban.

Amendments to the Digital Economy Bill will be discussed in parliament next week, according to the Department for Culture. Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said:

"The Government is committed to keeping children safe from harmful pornographic content online and that is exactly what we are doing."

"Only adults should be allowed to view such content and we have appointed a regulator, BBFC, to make sure the right age checks are in place to make that happen. If sites refuse to comply, they should be blocked."

Pornhub - one of the largest providers of adult video on the web - has already said it will comply.