Twenty years ago this would have been the premise for a Fry and Laurie sketch.

Hugh Laurie wearing a mac and looking embarrassed, enters a newsagent where Stephen Fry is manning the register. Several customers browse. Laurie quietly mumbles that he would like a porn pass, upon which Fry loudly starts enumerating the various categories available (“The new porn categories only just arrived this morning. Now — no no, let me guess! I'm a good judge of character — I think you are looking for an ebony-pass. Am I right?”), to the embarrassment of Laurie who looks around at the other customers anxiously.

Hilarity ensues as Fry continues listing ever more embarrassing categories of porn for which a pass presumably exists, and Laurie's character loudly gets his name read back to him as Fry reads the details on his driver's licence for confirmation.

Something like that would never happen in real life of course.

Strange and worrying that this managed to get turned into legislation in a country like the UK.