Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

It wouldn't but the ISP will know you re using a VPN, without AV, same with torrent sites... not what you re visiting or downloading.

I accept that a determined user, like yourself, will do all they can to view porn but blocking at the ISP, is a far better way than simple AV, got round using free VPNs that take a couple of clicks to download.

China try to block / censor the internet... doesn't work.

How will you stop me downloading a VPN install file that I've torrented or similar?

It's really not hard to deal these things

It's also farming out parenting

So now parents can go "Oh good Little Timmy and Tina won't be viewing porn because the new law stops them. I don't need to monitor them any more"

Whilst Little Timmy and Tina are using a VPN and accessing even more hard core content

And I say Timmy AND Tina because girls can and do view this stuff too

Yes how dare a woman masturbate rather than "do something useful"

🤣

Agree 👆

A purchase isn't the same as browsing information, and you know that.

Lol, OK. Scuttle back to your sad little hole. Most women are actually porn users, and it's perfectly natural for women to masturbate too. I feel sorry for you.

No, it's definitely not big process. Anybody can download a free vpn in less than a minute to bypass. Quicker than entering your card details, no?

I will never be forced to enter personal details to access any part of the Internet. This is the tip of the iceberg, no?

Yeah I guess it's a good thing in the sense that I quite like watching porn sometimes, but it makes me feel a bit grubby. And I'm way too paranoid about sites getting hacked to input my details, so I just won't watch it.

I think it's likely to bring complacency to a lot of parents who won't realise how easily circumvented it is.

Tech savvy kids will use VPN's and non tech savvy kids will be shown how to use VPN's by their mates.

The tech is also not fool proof at all. DH was asked by one site (not a porn site - a forum that has a coupe of support sections) to do the photo age thing. DS asked if he could do it as he'd heard, from his mates, that loads of them weren't accurate. He's a young looking 14 (he's not one of the 6ft plus strapping teens that look mid twenties that lots of MN'ers have) and it passed him in seconds...

Most women are not occasional porn users and even if they were it doesn’t mean you have to do it. Watching other women being exploited should not be a turn on which you are reinforcing by sex or masturbation.

Try ignoring the urges and doing something harmless or better still useful, instead. Then you'll be in a position to teach your children not to use it.

It's not just porn...

@Vimtolady Exactly the scale and scope of availability is way beyond anything adult who were kids 25 or 30 years ago could have imagined. Its negligent and so unfair to let young kids contend with all of that, this is a step in the right direction.

How on earth do you view porn accidently? unless its sent in a message etc, which this law will not prevent as the rules don't apply to meta tiktok etc.

Surely the whole age verification thing needs to be about anything that has harmful content, not just porn( I think that is the aim) Tik Tok, Facebook etc all have content that isn’t really appropriate for under 16s, but the issue always seems to be porn

Why isn't it? its costly to monitor but thats just an excuse by ISPs/Ofcom who want to maximise profits.

Blocking at the ISP level is done by many countries who want to ban certain sites.

Shared computers? really? i'd want to know if my partner was accessing porn.

Spoofing a mac address only goes so far, if the ISP has blocked the porn in the first place, what exactly would it gain the user?

You could set an example and reduce demand, by not viewing it yourself, OP.

It's a step in the right direction. At the very least it makes it less likely that a child will access porn unwittingly, and it sends out the message that it is for adults only. Many teenagers use fake id to buy alcohol and to get into clubs and pubs, but that doesn't mean that we should scrap the age limit for purchasing alcohol.

The laws are poorly thought out and will be ineffectual.

They will encourage greater use of VPNs which will actually make the job of policing the net a lot harder.

They also risk user data leaks. If the government can't even keep a list of secret agents safe, what kind of idiot would believe that a porn company can keep it's user data safe ?

What the government should be doing is working on better tools to allow parents to control the use of devices for children rather than trying to discriminate against adults.

I haven't voted. I think the law has a noble aim- no-one normal wants kids to have access to pornography.

But, even with my limited IT knowledge I think it will be easily bypassed and ignored, particularly by the group it's supposed to protect. Meanwhile it could produce all kinds of unintended consequences.

They're calling thr Porn Law to gain support and hide the rest of what they have define

Until people find that even accessing MN or FB or Amazon requires ID checks and the realise how poorly done the law is and how far reaching the "adult content" description is