Porn-site checks will leave us all exposed

The government’s plans to protect children will put adults at risk.

- Barry Collins

I remember the fi rst time we tried it,like it was yesterday. Rumour had it that the old boy who ran Candy Stores wasn’t too fussed about ID, so long as you actually paid for his top-shelf mags rather than stealing them. So my mate Taff, the tallest among us and with the faintest of fi ve o’clock shadows creeping across his 14-year-old face, reached up to the top shelf, whipped down a copy of Mayfair and proffered the £3.50 in loose change that we’d pooled together outside.

“Alright, son?” the newsagent asked. “Want to put that back or should I deliver it with your mum’s Daily Mirror in the morning?”. Taff passed on Mayfair, advanced to Go and none of us set foot inside that shop for the next six months.