Porn age checks - Surely a good thing?

[Vimtolady]

Just read a ‘debate’ on the BBC News website about the pros and cons of age verification of porn websites. Weirdly I was verified for the first time myself last night (I am a porn user but not all the time) so was interested to read it.

j get that it was a debate but I honestly don’t see how anyone could object. Last night I wasn’t expecting to be verified but the process was simple, took about a minute and I don’t think I’d have easily been able to circumvent it. Obviously there are security concerns but no more so than with any other website.

I think these checks are great! My eldest DC is 13 so probably getting to (or at) the age when porn might become interesting to her, and this would make it much more difficult to access which would doubtless be a good thing, no?

Does anyone disagree?! I’d be interested to hear arguments against because I can’t really think of any and that makes me suspicious I’m being narrow minded.

Waiting for perfect laws (which probably don’t exist) means no protection at all!

I just don’t buy the ‘false sense of security’ thing. I’m a parent. My attitude to my kids’ potential porn viewing is the same today as last week. I will provide the same education and show the same interest as before. I’m just relieved that porn is now three or four clicks away for them rather than one.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Maybe it is ‘more perfect’ (I don’t know, I’m not an IT expert). And if it is then I’d support it. But you suggested that imperfection alone is enough to oppose a law, and I presume that even your ‘more perfect’ law isn’t actually perfect.

So I go back to my original point which is that the proposed imperfect law is a good thing because it moves us forward, even if there are better laws that we could still campaign for. Moving one step along a long path is better than moving zero steps, no?

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

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?

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.

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.

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

What else do you suggest?

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

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.

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

You don’t have to. Last night I was given the option of passport, credit card or photo. I would have preferred photo but it was dark so I gave my card details.

Obviously things can go wrong. But I presume you never get in a car because car crashes NEVER happen? Right?

A secure website now has my card details, in exactly the same way as dozens of others do. Yes they could leak. But apparently 75% of men and over half of women use porn so if it comes out that I have then I’ll just have to admit that I’m in the majority (link yougov.co.uk/society/articles/42945-how-often-do-britons-watch-porn)

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.