What is a porn passport and how it will help protect children from “adult” content

The problem of children's access to non-children's content occupies many people today. Alas, in most cases everything is limited to a formal question - “Are you already 18?” But it seems that Spain has found a way out of the situation, albeit a rather complicated one. This country is introducing a digital “porn passport”.

The Spanish government has decided to protect children from online porn with a “porn passport.” Its official name is Digital Wallet Beta. This is an application that will allow Internet resources to check whether a site visitor meets the age limit.

After confirming age, the user receives 30 “porn credits” that must be used within a month. They provide access to content marked “18+”. If the allocated limit is not enough, you can send a request for additional “credits”.

In the summer of 2024, the system began to work, but for now in test mode. “Porn passport” is an optional system and is offered to adult sites as one of several options for protecting minors from several currently available. But after the “run-in”, the Digital Wallet Beta will become mandatory for everyone, and not only in Spain.

The program to protect children and adolescents from the negative influence of porn will begin in October 2027 throughout the European Union. Without a digital “porn passport,” adult sites will be unable to provide users with access to their content. By then, a common system will be in place, which will likely become part of the EU's global service (eIDAS2), providing access to a wide range of public and private services.

Recently, pornography has become so firmly established in the lives of millions of people that scientists are devoting serious research to it.