Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

That's a positive for the OSA then, those websites should be age-gated.

That's a choice made by these fitness forums, isn't it? The OSA doesn't ban children from seeing warning about steroid abuse.

No, it just looks like it's anonymous. The list of exceptions where data is retained is so long and ill-defined that they can justify hanging on to the data in the majority of cases. And, because the exceptions are all to do with suspecting a breach of the law, they have no duty to inform you of exactly what they've retained.

This is one of those circumstances where you really, really need to read the terms of service.

I’ve done the Reddit verification and it’s still anonymous!

It is not just about porn though. I can no longer access an anonymous alcohol support subReddit (and also one about self harm) as I would have to waive my anonymity. Defeats the point, don't you think.

Tbh, I'm not massively fussed about this either way.

It would be nice if more parents actually parented, rather than giving their kids unfettered access to the internet and acting surprised with what that results in.

I have no interest in verifying my age on these sites, because it's a time-consuming nuisance and handing over that sort of data to all and sundry is asking for trouble. But then again, it literally took me a couple of minutes to install a VPN on my phone, so it's not exactly the massive the end-of-the-world inconvenience some people are making it out to be, either.

This legislation won't make a jot of difference to protecting kids though, so really should be confined to the dustbin asap.

It's. Not. Just. About. Porn.

Read that again. Slowly.

This is much more wide-ranging than just porn sites. If it was just porn sites with age checks, nobody would have a problem with it. This puts service providers - not just Facebook/X/Reddit/etc, but volunteers running small sites too - right at the beginning of the chain of evidence for every single UK law. It's a defence lawyer's wet dream, because they're unqualified and using tools that aren't fit for that purpose.

Not only that, but providers are incentivised to over-correct and remove content even if there's a chance of it being deemed harmful whether legal or not, on pain of an £18m+ fine. So what do you think will happen when the police respond to a complaint? Yep, they'll find nothing to investigate.

This is going to have the exact opposite of its intended effect. Half the population will be using VPNs, all the kids will be using fake IDs generated for the purpose of (trivially) defeating the age checks, fewer actual bad actors will be investigated and even fewer will be successfully prosecuted.

That's why it's a bad thing.

Something was done ages ago, through your internet provider.
Posters were told then that it wouldn't work and it didn't
So here we are with another system that won't work.
We already have posters telling you how your DC will get around it, and MPs now putting forward ideas to ban VPNs.
So that everybody's freedoms are curtailed "for the sake of the children".
But this won't stop parents from buying their children smart phones.
or not putting blocks on systems at home or watching their children whilst on the internet.

@PersephoneSeethes so yes it is down to the parents all of them. Did you report the boy to the school for showing your DS porn?
Do his parents know or even care?

I think it's a good thing that should have been done ages ago.

On the plus side, I haven’t verified on X, and probably won’t because now I won’t get all the porn when on GC Twitter. Win win!

We already have those emails "I hacked your webcam and saw what you were watching and I'm going to release the video to all your friends and family if you don't pay X"

This will just make it more plausible to be real

I know PornHub is blocked in 17 US states, including Texas, because it won’t comply with their age verification requirements.

Wish our government would be as forceful.

I give it less than twelve months before there's a major data breach/hacking attack and everyone's personal data is all over the internet.
All sorts of people from organised state sponsored hacking groups in Russia, China, and the Middle East to malevolent individuals will be all over this like a rash.
At the bare minimum there is going to be a massive rise in scam emails "We've hacked your Pornhub account and will send details of what you've been watching to everyone on your email list unless you give is £XXX".

Thats really unfair. My DS was shown porn of the first time at school by mate who had downloaded it onto his phone. I had already blocked it years before at the router and DS phone when he got one but at the time porn on Reddit got around that block. My DS was obviously told about that work around and started watching in the loo.

So please don’t say it’s all up to the parents. I did everything I possibly could to block my DS getting access to porn and he still got it. It’s up to the tech giants to do their bit!

MN have a throw away email address and that's it. I have ad blockers and VPN too

Discord, Reddit, art forums...

She is one of many this has happened to in the SW community over the last 2-3 years. There are other references to it online and on X.

Will access to USA ever be decided based on other internet-use profiling? It's conceivable to me that it could happen. And of course, it's not just the USA, but I am singling them out as they seem particularly egregious and their data centres are likely where a lot of UK verification data is heading.

Considering I've blocked over 20000 trackers on mumsnet, your data is going all over the Web from here

Mumsnet don't know who I am. They don't have a face scan, or my ID. All they have is a dynamic IP address.

Do you know exactly where your data is going, even on Mumsnet? Please list all the places Mumsnet has sent your data...

Literally go to any porn site from a UK IP address... Red tube, porn hub etc

Your mobile phone company and ISP are on UK soil. They are regulated, subject to UK / EU law and variety of other regulations around how they store, share, sell and use your data. Your data remains here.

The companies you are handing over age verification info to are offshore with no such safeguards. Ofcom have written guidelines which no one in say, USA, will adhere to when your data is on their soil. See the Patriot Act.

My friend was recently refused access to the USA while travelling to see her fiance's family - held in detention for 24 hours at LAX, interrogated, flown back to UK and banned for 10 years.

For what crime? Because they had evidence that she worked as a sex worker in the UK about 5 years previously. They got that evidence by harvesting data from the web. Do you think homeland security waving photos of her in front of her face, found on an escort website, along with the ID she provided them 5 years previously to verify, adhered to GDPR?

Please stop handing over sensitivite ID data to offshore entities.