Age verification for indecent websites set to be rejected

A suggestion to restrict access to indecent websites by requiring web surfers to enter credit card details to verify their age would likely be abandoned in the face of overwhelming opposition, a senior official said.

The idea was put forward by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, along with 10 others aimed at curbing access to obscene and indecent materials on the Web, as part of its review of the laws on publishing such material nearly two months ago.

Two other proposals - that internet service providers supply filtering software and extending the movie rating system to all publications - might also be dropped in the next consultation phase.

Greg So Kam-leung, undersecretary for commerce and economic development, said the public had expressed clear preferences on how the government should move forward in its review of the ordinance. Opinions were heard in more than 20 focus group meetings and forums in the past six weeks, he said.

The bureau initially put forward a system that uses credit-card data to authenticate the age of internet users who wanted to enter sites hosted in Hong Kong that contained obscene or indecent material.

But Bonnie Smith, deputy privacy commissioner, said in a paper submitted to a Legislative Council panel last week that the initiative 'poses an unnecessary risk of his personal data being compromised'.