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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

251B: After Clause 41, insert the following new Clause— ““Additional protection from harmful material through online on-demand programme services using age verification scheme For section 368E(2) of the Communication Act 2003 (harmful material), substitute— ““(2) An online on-demand programme service must not contain any material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen. (3) If an online on-demand programme service contains the following material, the material must only be made available using a clearly identifiable and robust age verification scheme to determine that the person purchasing or otherwise obtaining access to the material is not under eighteen— (a) material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen; (b) material which is contained in a video work for which a classification certificate has been issued containing the statements mentioned in section 7(2)(c) of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (recordings to be supplied only in licensed sex shops); (c) material which falls within subsection (4) unless it is contained in a video work for which a classification certificate other than one containing the statements mentioned in section 7(2)(c) of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (recordings to be supplied only in licensed sex shops) has been issued. (4) Material falls within this subsection if it is pornographic and portrays, in an explicit and realistic way, any of the following— (a) an act of penetration of the vagina or anus of a person with a part of a person’s body or anything else; (b) the performance by a person of an act of intercourse or oral sex; (c) the performance by a person or an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal; (d) an act of masturbation; (e) an act of ejaculation; (f) human genital organs or human urinary or excretory functions; or (g) an act of restraint or violence which is associated with sexual activity. (5) In this section— ““classification certificate”” and ““video work”” have the same meaning as in the Video Recordings Act 1984; ““pornographic”” has the same meaning as in section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (possession of extreme pornographic images).””””