Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

Adult content isn't just porn. It's also defined as including sites which discuss self harm, suicide and eating disorders

I didn't see it say "glorifying" these. Just discussing them

Which could lead to useful, self help type groups being ID walled. Groups teenagers might want to access without telling their parents whilst looking for help.

I don't trust anything which can potentially link you to supposedly inappropriate content

And what counts as "porn" can slowly start to become more broad. Until you won't be able to access those smutty books on Amazon. Or the AI running it will block a health site because it talks about sex and shows naked bodies for health reasons. Or an art gallery for nude paintings. Or something it just reads as nudity when it's not. Or it starts blocked LGBTQ+ content.

This has all happened before btw

Getting a bit away from the legislation, but blocking at the ISP level isn't really a workable solution, easy to spoof a MAC address, and unworkable on a shared computer, which many people do.

I think it's clearly a good thing, as you say OP an adult wants to access that material they can age verify or get a VPN. Very young children will now experience considerably more friction when trying to access pornographic material and the chances of them happening across it is now vastly reduced.

There was a thread on here recently where lots of people argued that it would be pointless because kids would still be able to browse reddit and twitter for access to porn but they have age verification too so that won't be the case. I know others say age kids will just download a VPN but most VPN that a child could access for example browser based options or free VPN's are not particularly functional and if they are they are very limited in terms of the amount of data you can stream though them. Parents can also set up controls where they need to verify any app the child tried to download on their device and so they can block any attempt to access a VPN. Due to how it works, Tor and access to the "dark web" is often cumbersome and painfully slow (especially for streaming) and it is not currently home to a lot of porn.

The research is clear that accessing porn at a young age increases the risk of escalation to extreme content and harmful attitudes and behaviours as the article says.

While the man in the BBC article raises some valid concerns he seems more worried about porn consumers being made vulnerable by having to verify than the harms to women, children and indeed many young men from porn. He suggests that he viewed porn as a teen and he is ok so its not an issue and yet he is clearly late 40's to 50's in age so would not have been as exposed to unlimited hardcore porn at a young age as todays kids are, so I don't think his point is really that valid.

Roxy in the article also makes the point that there isn't enough consideration about the harms that porn does to the adults who consume it either and I think that is valid. I am anti-porn, not because I am a prude or because I think sex is dirty but because I think porn harms and exploits the women who work in the industry, and indeed many of the men who perform also. I think it is a supernormal stimuli that taps into our neurobiology and can lead to maladaptive behaviours in those who consume it, not always but frequently as it can be for many, especially young men highly addictive.

Ive got mixed feelings. On one hand i think its a good idea to try and hinder kids from accessing stuff, making it harder than clicking "i am over 18" button.

That said, is the age verification only coming from legit (for want of a better word) sites? Would kids be able to access stuff from other areas of the web that is possible more extreme and darker in nature?

As a pp said, it might stop younger kids, which is a good thing, but I've no doubt a tech savvy teen will be easily able to circumvent this.

Lastly, given hackers etc, I can imagine people having their ID and ccard info stolen, but also more likely to be blackmailed if the info is obtained from a porn site. Pornhub preferences likely to be a lot more blackmail worthy than shopping preferences at m and s or the co-op.

No it wouldn't, adults can provide AV per device, easily done on the mac address.
ISPs have all this information.

They can fund this via the 10% pa increases to our internet costs.

I hate that it’s being called the porn law/ porn age checks, as it actually goes far beyond that, it’s wide ranging, fairly wooly and can pretty much apply to any website on the internet. The online safety act is a terribly written law which will probably do very little to help

The online age restriction. applies to legal porn, and content deemed "harmful" for under 18's.

Illegal Porn, is illegal.

No, it's not the same thing! If the company doesn't do age checks, they will be blocked at ISP level.

If they do age checks, but under 18s bypass them with a VPN, then nothing will happen.

Then you would be blocking access to people over 18.

Don't forget this isn't just porn, (legal or illegal) it's about restricting access to content that may be harmful to under 18's. E.G. Content that's suitable for over 18 to access. (i.e. parts of MN)

Age verification is so easy to bypass using a free VPN, that this law is meaningless. It's so meaningless in fact, that it makes me wonder why they bothered.

It guess it's a bit of good PR.

I don't think it's conspiracy-theoryish to think this is a step towards more government control over info (seeing what you access, controlling access with methods that actually work).

I do think some IT-naive parents will now just assume their kids can't access porn.

Its not legal content at all, try buying a DVD from a uk supplier showing hardcore sex?
British board of film censors have far stricter content rules, than what a UK isp can allow you to view.

I agree it may indeed stop a significant number of children accessing harmful content, but that alone doesn't make it "a good thing".

It ignores the rights of others to access otherwise legal content, and compromises their security a privacy.

For example, a website such as this contains content that may be deemed "harmful", and require you to prove your age, which may reveal your identity.

In the event that MN gets hacked, or some other forum you use, would you want your identity to be linked to your comments, let alone your banking details?

Just block all at the ISP level, instead of this hotch botch law, which is so easily circumvented.

I personally hate porn, and in theory have no problem with age checks for porn. The problem is the current legislation covers anything that could be considered adult content so it’s not just porn that’s being blocked unless you hand over ID.

Then, there’s the fact that people have to hand over ID for this sort of thing leaving them even more vulnerable to data theft.

Not to mention installing a VPN that will allow you to bypass any checks at all is extremely easy so kids are just going to do that if they want to look at anything they shouldn’t, anyway.

According to Google, websites that don't comply with age verification will be blocked at ISP level, so isn't that pretty much the same thing? I don't know because I'm not techy.

As i said earlier, down loading of a VPN would be by default blocked by the ISP, subject to AV, which can be tighter, as these are UK regulated companies.

Oh and from the MN data leak,it was incredibly easy to get access to people's email etc.

Goodness me. You shop online and use contactless all the time presumably? You're fucking using Mumsnet which has more than one data leak!

If you can install a VPN, you can get round their filtering and they can't stop it.
It's really really difficult nigh in impossible to block VPN traffic. You can just prevent the installation or monitor. But you can't block it.

Unless you operate a whitelist only internet.

Yeah, because data leaks NEVER happen. What can possibly go wrong?!

Well i did work in IT so i do know what i'm talking about.

Any ideas on why you cannot view porn on a well managed intranet? (thats basically a companies iSP)

Its blocked and is flagged to the IT administrator if porn access is attempted by your device.

This of course could have been done by ISP but the industry lobby against it, too expensive, some do however offer it.

Though its funny that Ofcom, basically a PR arm of the industry, have allowed yearly above inflation increases of 10% to your internet access.

Oh you know how to block pornography traffic going through a Netherlands IP on your kids phone do you?