To be pretty annoyed/creeped out by this incoming internet age verification thing

Oh no, we simply must allow the innocent porn companies to continue doing business as usual.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/12/22/tech/pornhub-sex-trafficking

They could just ban porn sites outright which would be easier. Apparently Pornhub is banned in some US states.

Not according to the content blocker on my phone it’s not.

Well, aside from the horrors inherent in handing over our official photo IDs to big tech companies/the government en masse (to probably retain forevermore and use as they please), there is the fact that I have already been barred from viewing MAKE-UP subreddits on Reddit because they required age verification for some ludicrous reason. Yes, make-up is apparently "adult" content now. And this has only just started....

People never seem to consider all the potential future uses of these things. Who knows what "content" will become proscribed in the future? Anti-trans/pro-women's rights content? Well, there goes most of this forum. Pro-Palestine content? We're already seeing moves in that direction. Criticism of authoritarianism, as employed during the Covid regime? The social media companies already banded together to shadow-ban, blacklist and "moderate" Covid dissenters, such as Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya: https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/115286/documents/HHRG-118-GO00-20230208-SD011.pdf

Now, they could hand over the IDs of people accessing such blacklisted content straight to the government - perhaps get their bank accounts frozen, as with the Canadian truckers?

@GingerBeverage I think a biggie is an awful lot of partnered up guys in particular are trying to hide the fact they are on it and are worried it will show up ‘somewhere ‘ - leaks etc

They want the jabs, just like adults want the porn?
We have age checks for all sorts of things and no one argues against them, but not pornography. It’s weird.

I wouldn't age verify for something like BlueSky, isn't it like X, I don't use either anyway but I suppose MN falls under the same umbrella, I can live without that as well.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/opinion_column_age_verification/

Follow the thread.

That's because they want the jabs and have to prove they are overweight. I also had to do a video to get the NHS app in Covid to use to go on holiday as the vaccines were on there. I wouldn't do one for a forum though because it's not something that I need and wouldn't affect my life if I didn't use it. People also have to do them for some banks. I think it is best to limit this sort of ID check to things you need rather than lots of random websites

Don’t some weight loss jab sites require live video as evidence of ID?

Why is no one up in arms about that?

Ooh right, yeah best not bother then.

Let’s not bother with gun restriction either. People will just get hold of them illegally. I also don’t know why there’s a law about selling cigarettes to children. They just nick them, or get an adult to buy them for them. Come to think of it, some people find their way around most laws. Perhaps we shouldn’t have any laws at all.

None of this will work because people will just access sites outside the UK. It's just the government posturing.

What are you wanging on about and how is it relevant to the topic?

Yeah like a married man moving in with a gay man for lockdown...

What would they be stopping? It’s not just for adults. I mean a 16 year old can vote soon but no to posting on mumsnet

If MN asks for age/ID verification I'll just stop using it. I stopped using it over the cookies thing and only came back because I wanted to know what people were saying about the For Women Scotland judgment.

I don't disagree with it at all for porn sites but it is a bit ridiculous for a site like this.

A lot of people use Apple Pay to shop online so the card details are not there, I have checked that mine are not left on old shopping sites since the M&S hack.

If these sites are all hunky dory and the users have belief they aren’t from dodgy entities - why are they so nervous about giving their details?? As others have said do they feel that way if buying from Amazon etc ??

In theory PCI-DSS standards make using cards on the internet safe. Card details should never be stored, and unique hashes generated for each transaction (or series of transactions if you are subscribing).

Of course whether the company you are dealing with is actually enforcing these standards is another matter. In theory they should be subject to regular independent audits to make sure they are maintaining the correct levels of security.

However if the UKs very own MoD lacks the basic competence to keep an above-top-secret list of spies and agents safe, then I would suggest folk adjust their expectations accordingly.

You think they were acting for a foreign power?

Why would your credit card details be ‘all over’ the internet?

Do you:
-shop online for clothes or food
-make reservations at restaurants, hotels or air b and b
-book flights
-book concert tickets
-book activities for children online

You give your credit card details every time you do that. What’s the difference?

Stranger things happen at sea.

You dont have to, it's not compulsory.🤷‍♀️

Quite frankley I don't want to have to put my credit card details all over the internet in order to be "allowed" to access anything our esteemed government deems "adult?"