Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

What else do you suggest?

You should never have to give card details to verify your age

Sorry, who should do that, the parents or the government?

If the government, I'm with you.

If the parents, no. Many parents wouldn't have a clue how to do that. Their DC needs protecting too.

Because your 7 year old can't easily see hardcore pornography.

Your 12 year-old will not be able to easily view it without deception.

A worrying percentage of small children have unsupervised internet access and can easily see adult content. Primary school children have a d do watch porn and get very twisted ideas about what sex looks like. Demanding nudes from little girls. Thinking gang banging is perfectly normal, or slapping or forcing them etc.

Don't believe me? Ask ANY safeguarding officer in ANY school, including primary schools. They will attest to what kids are seeing.

At least these age verification steps make it harder for them to view this content.

It's not perfect,but it's a step forward.

There will be a gap between 10 years olds who know how to search and click on a phone, and 10 year olds who know how to set up.a VPN or even what one is.

What's your alternative? Do nothing amd continue as we are?

Yes so block porn at the ISP level... nothing else is going to stop kids seeing this vile content.

The average age for kids to see hardcore porn is now around 10.

If it stops that happening, no matter how imperfect, then I'm all for it. Definitely not all 10 years know what a VPN is, how to set one up.

Porn is hugely damaging. Boys, and some girls, are consuming violent porn that is utterly degrading to women and girls before they're even sexually mature or have had any sexual experiences at all. Girls are being assaulted by boys, including their older brothers, after they have watched porn, and think it's normal to be choked by their boyfriends.

A society that doesn't try to tackle that is throwing the mental health and safety of our younger generations under the bus because they like to wank to porn. Thank goodness someone is trying to do something.

As its incredibly easy to by-pass and enforcement of fines is impossible, then how exactly is it in anyway, making children "safe"

Uh?
I' ve just given you a far more perfect law but you seem transfixed on a bad law.

Blocked at the network level means UK companies are the ones who can be fined, so enforcement is easy.

There are millions of porn hosting sites out there, very very few will follow UK law and be impossible to fine.

I think it's really important for the government to step in where lazy parents aren't doing their job! This might not stop all 15 year olds accessing porn but it's at least going to stop younger kids.

I'd much rather this than nothing and I definitely don't think it's going to make parents check their kids phones less because they're complacent. There's 101 other things you need to be checking their phones for apart from watching porn.
Of course ideally parents should be stepping up, but when they're not (and they haven't been) this is the next best thing.

I'm 100% for it and amazed it's taken so long.

If it stops a child clicking through and stopping them seeing a woman being raped, not bad thing.

If it stops a curious 10 year old looking up "women with big tits" some term they've heard and seeing the results with a click then that's good.

Obviously it's incredibly easy to bypass, but at least it's a step towards keeping kids safe online.

"It's also not easy to block porn as a parent. a VPN can get round ISP's porn-blocking too"

Yes, but also as a parent you need to know what your kid has on their phones/tablets/computers if you're giving them unsupervised internet access. You also need to take responsibility for raising decent kids, making them aware of dangers, the inappropriate sexual relationship idea porn presents etc.

Parents need to step up too.

I don't access porn and never have. Also in my 60s, so maybe not as tech savvy as some. Ten minutes ago I had never heard of a VPN.
I have now set one up- Go me!
No idea if the law is good or bad, but it is certainly easy to circumnavigate.

We need perfect laws to protect children, bad law just gives parents a false sense of security, so, as almost all children will be using Android/IOS phones and ISPs from UK based internet providers, a better way would be age verification on the ISP, by device, inc using/downloading VPNs.

Public wifi networks too.

These companies know exactly what is being downloaded & viewed, the default is that all blocked at the network level, then AV used to access.

It smacks of legislation that's been written by well intentioned people who have little understanding how the internet works.

I didn’t say everyone who has objections is a porn apologist, merely predicted that there will be posts from such people. No need to be so defensive if the cap doesn’t fit.

It doesn’t just necessarily apply to porn though. Reddit have blocked anything deemed as nsfw. Some very innocuous subs have been blocked - one was a support sub for quitting drinking for example

Why are you attacking people who think that the bill is an unworkable mess as porn apologists. Are you trying to stifle debate?

Being critical of this law does not make someone a porn apologist.

When you buy cigarettes you have the option to pay cash and not leave a digital footprint. Unfortunately everything you do on the internet is traceable.

Personally I wouldn't feel safe sharing my card details with a porn site, especially as it's likely many will be set-up to precisely to harvest card details.

When a US state introduced this, traffic dropped by 80%.. a good thing?

No, they just used VPN & unregulated sites, there are millions of platforms where porn can be viewed, its not just Pornhub, going to alternatives for porn just means even more violent extreme porn is available to young people.

Enforcement? these sites are primarily American, atm fining US companies and enforcement is a no no, Trump is protecting US firms, hence the new law isn't as tough on X or Meta.

There is a reason no other country in the world has laws like this, unintended consequences.