A High Court has granted permission for a judicial review of the government's decision to drop rules around age verification on pornography sites. 

Earlier this year, a Christian campaigner and a student joined forces to challenge the government on this decision. 

Ioannis Dekas and Ava Vakil argued that the Government had not introduced rules around age verification on adult sites, despite passing a law to do so. 

The duo referred to part three of the 2017 Digital Economy Act which requires commercial online pornography sites to have "robust age verification controls in place" to prevent any under 18s from accessing the sites. 

However, in 2019 the then Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan said these measures would no longer go ahead but will be included in the government's wider Online Harms Bill being brought in later this year instead. 

During a court hearing on Wednesday, Lady Justice Whipple ruled to allow a judicial review of the government's decision in 2019 arguing that there's possibly a gap between the rules covered in the 2017 law and those proposed in the Online Safety Bill. 

Giving his reaction to the High Court's decision, Ioannis Dekas told Premier: "I am delighted that a High Court judge today essentially ruled that it is arguable that the government has acted unlawfully in the protection of children in the UK in regard to age verification and access to commercial pornographic websites.

"My hope is that the decision today will be the much-needed catalyst for change in this regard."

Dekas and Vakil have set up a CrowdJustice page to fundraise for their case.