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

[Fragmentedbrain]

Kids are as good as anyone at VPNs. It's just going to open adults up to blackmail and state control.

Also if you don't want your kids looking at adult material maybe don't let them have a smartphone until they're 16.

@orwellwasright2025

Agree.

Look at the sentences for paedophiles and even those caught with a knife in real life.

Its a slap on the wrist for child abuse images.

And if your child is at secondary they may not be a tech wizard but they all know who the tech wizards are!

My 16 year old DS welcomes this. He doesn’t want to look at porn and it is all too easy at the monent. He is tempted because he is an 16 year old boy and has looked at it but in his words, it makes him feel crap. We have put many controls in place, at his request. I am delighted with this coming in and am just sad it has been so long coming.

And for those of you thinking “just don’t look” when I had that conversation he very reasonably said “that is like me saying to you ‘just don’t eat crap’ you don’t want to but you do it anyway”.

I think that sites such as mumsnet have every right to ask for ID, and then people can simply say nope and walk away. My issue is with it being government controlled and pushed by the government. If history has taught anybody anything it is that governments MUST NOT be given the power to monitor or interfere with people's conversations, comments or beliefs. Pol Pot, Chairman Mao and Hitler to name but three would LOVE this idea.

I unfortunately believe that the only way to stop online bullying is just to stay offline, or immediately block and walk away once it starts. I have been bullied and harassed online, some years ago. I responded by blocking everyone involved and having zero interaction with any of them, and it worked. This was on Twitter, where I was very active at that time, and it was open for all to see, including people who knew me in real life.

I ignored it totally. Not a single word of response and used the block button freely. It took a few months, and I was lucky I was in therapy for something else at the time and this was the approach my psychologist walked me through, because otherwise who knows how I'd have responded. But it worked. Responding - at all - always feeds the bully monster. It's not possible in real life to walk away from a punch or someone screaming in your face, but it very much is possible to completely silence it online.

Teaching, really teaching that words are NOT the same as a punch, a kick and NOT usually actually dangerous is important.

But people want not to just be safe, they want to be validated, to win, and to have everyone agree with them. Sometimes, that is an understandable want, but it's not reality.

Maybe someone could work on an app that just removes any negative or harmful comments from your timeline, comments etc, we could filter our own personal internet usage through that. It could work like an adblocker.

You cannot stop people from being arseholes, you cannot legislate offensiveness, what is offensive and upsetting to one is fun and fine to another. i

For example, I find some of the crap on this thread so far truly and genuinely offensive - but I wouldn't report them to the Politburo for it or even want them not to be able to spout this rubbish.

Mumsnet is an absolute shithole at times, there are women here who would love to see women they disagree with on a dissident list. There are always the good soldiers of the Red Army.

Bottom line, state sponsored lists of dissidents and all the censorship and fear and abuses of power that will accompany that is a far far worse concept than the problem it is pretending it wants to solve.

If I was able to be tied to this comment by the government, I would not have made it. People are getting locked up for thought crimes already.

They all think it won't happen to them, until it does.

Yep, they're constantly being set free, and that's the few that are even brought to trial. I trust judges about as much as I do politicians.

Porn is a separate issue and could easily have been regulated and brought to heel decades ago. Those in power haven't done anything about it, they have tried precisely nothing, because they don't care. The first companies to find ways around this will be the prostitution and porn sites. They're billion dollar organisations and they need to destroy young brains to keep that money rolling in.

Every single man on the planet is "into it" and plenty of women too. I think women who vehemently condemn it seem repressed and I think the "went somebody think of the children" argument is contrived and they just feel insecure about it existing at all.

I agree it's not actually the core point here.

Some women on this site spend hours posting on domestic violence threads. As victims or to give advice. The victims (usually women) need access to resources and are in a difficult situation. They may not want to go to a domestic violence charity. Maybe they don’t realise they are being abused. Sometimes hundreds of women respond and the victim realises due to sheer numbers that something isn’t right.

Lets say you have to give ID to post on the site, to voluntarily help women, if my data is shared inadvertently or hacked MY life may be at risk! Some of the posts I’ve read on here I believe if the husband had your data you may be at risk. This will reduce assistance. Women won’t post for help, women won’t post assistance or their story or their advice.

We need to think very carefully before submitting to handing over our privacy and data to governments. We also need to really ask why do they want our data. And what risk is there?

Especially a government who thinks pedophilia and rape means a smack on the wrist and no jail time (or very short jail times).
Children will access porn regardless - a woman undergoing violence isn’t going to want her ID to be put onto the website.

But it’s clear women don’t really matter. Maybe the husband will then control her access more - taking her ID credentials. Maybe to not allow her access? Or Maybe posting as her to stop her accessing her kids. Maybe to gaslight her.

Melodramatic or a possibility?

What I do know is men will still access porn.

Yep. Sleep walking into an era where you can be monitored and cut off.

Off topic but - It’s fascinating who is good with tech at school. It’s often not the ones you’d expect (the ones playing games each evening are often not the tech kids). And mindblowing what a smart 11 year old can do. And their peers appreciate their knowledge.

Tech companies should be providing lunch time resources, clubs and mentoring these children to get them early for apprenticeships. Ethical hacking etc. Put their talents to good use. Get them engaged and talent spot. Offer them summer school aged 16 with a view to recruiting post A levels.

Compiling lists of people accessing dodgy content already happens, it's helped prevent terrorist attacks, saved women and children from abuse, helped solve crimes. If someone isn't doing anything wrong they have nothing to fear.
Theres no right to privacy in the Internet, its a service being provided.

One of the M&S hackers is 17.

It'll just create a black market in "used" email addresses that will pass verification. Anyone who's worked on web projects in the past 30 years will probably have built up a few spare ones that would pass that they could sell on ....

Not every single man is.
I feel no insecurity about it but still find it degrading and sad that they feel thats their best option to make money or feel desirable, or are being forced into it.
Any woman could do it if they wanted so there's nothing to even feel insecure about, the issue is what those women have experienced in life for them to be doing it, and the further damage it will cause to them.

I doubt you could find a single woman who's had a good education, secure loving childhood and relationships, and has healthy self esteem and mental health who is doing porn. It's exploiting women who are already at a disadvantage.

You’re missing the point. It doesn’t have to be “negative” to be badged as “adult”.
The closest comparison I can come up with was at school when I got called into my head of year for trying to access a banned site when I was researching a project on the Battle
of Waterloo…the protocol deemed the war element to be “adult” and therefore banned. Obviously things have moved on since then but you get the point.

As others have pointed out, it will be pointless because of VPNs.

The good side of it will be that more people will get VPNs to enhance their security on the net. The bad side will be that because more people will use VPNs it will become more difficult for the authorities to track criminals. So they have kind of screwed themselves up on that one.

The way it should work is through greater controls on the operating systems that identify phones as minor phones and the sites detect this and stop network traffic. The same system should be in place for apps on phones as well.

Should be relatively easy for the OS to implement and difficult to get round. Does involve parents actually doing some parenting though.

Sounds better to me. A pity it’s a post on here and not advice someone will actually use.

Agree it’ll just drive those who have something to hide to use other ways, and a group of people to do the same due to not wanting intrusion.

Whilst I agree with the blocking of porn from kids. The problem is the definition of adult content.

As an example a few years ago I logged on the internet in our local library. It blocked talksport because of gambling ads. I pointed out that every football club in the UK should have their website blocked then. So should itv and BBC as both give gambling tips.

It also blocked political party sites such as the Wessex party who's sole aim is to return to the kingdom of Wessex... nothing racist or other hate crime published...just a tongue in cheek political statement.

So who controls what we see? How do we object, appeal?

The internet needs far better regulation. It’s an absolute Wild West in parts; a toxic dumpster fire than needs putting out.

It could be (and is) a boon to humanity but there are far, far too many negative sides to it.

And I’m not actually against consensual and legal pornography. But at one time you really had to go out and find that stuff - I don’t think it’s healthy or positive for it to be readily available, for free, anywhere, anyhow, in someone’s pocket.

Whilst I agree with the blocking of porn from kids. The problem is the definition of adult content

Scunthorpe remains a problem.

Not sure where this idea that all kids are computer geniuses comes from. Most teens I know have grown up in a world where computers are intuitive and very user-friendly. As soon as they come across a barrier they have no idea what to do.

Speed limits don’t stop some people speeding, let’s not have them.

I know. It's good isn't it ?

Exactly, don't a lot of them use iPads and iPhones which as with Apple stuff, just works. Not like the old days with a computer when it took ages to sort it out if it went wrong

I don’t recognise that ime but I’d be interested to know what proportion fits this.