To ask Mumsnet why it hasn't implemented the ID check requirements on its adult content threads

[Fragmentedbrain]

Would be interested to know the legal reasoning when other sites are taking a different view

Rules for thee but not for me?

It’s not, but it’s not subject to an age restriction…

Yanbu. Sections of the feminist section for one, would fall into some of the guidelines, which are worryingly wide ranging.

It is loose, but I think it will come down to legal interpretation.

A post saying I starve myself by eating 100 calories a day in celery and I need help is unlikely to be promotion.

Something saying the same thing with the tone of I’m so skinny and you should do the same if you want to be skinny is not okay.

I’m sure Mumsnet is confident that they are taking down anything bordering on promoting or encouraging quickly enough that they don’t need to age restrict.

The words “talking about” aren’t used anywhere in the legislation, which is where everyone should be looking if they want to figure out what is and isn’t allowed - not news reporting which will lose the nuance of the exact wording of the law.

They actually brought this up on BBC Breakfast earlier which I thought was a bit unhelpful

If you can't see how the law being written so loosely that it's easy to misinterpret is a problem then it's worrying

I do see it as worrying. The question here is why isn’t Mumsnet asking for age verification, and looking at the law I can very clearly see why that isn’t necessary.

I’ve not shared my opinion on the law at all…

I know they’ve banned people uploading these now, but there used to be far too many people uploading pictures of genitalia. Unless these have all been deleted, I’m guessing that counts as adult content.

Some of the food threads on here are dangerously close to promoting eating disorders as well.

Yes we should not talk about things that exist in case The Children find out

There’s been a total change in how images are uploaded to Mumsnet, and maybe they have been through and deleted all old inappropriate pictures (although I imagine not all images of genitals are pornographic, but I haven’t looked at the definitely of pornographic for these purposes).

My point is that you really have to stretch the law beyond reasonable interpretation to conclude Mumsnet needs to implement ID verification, and I’m sure they have their decision decoded in a nice document to share with Ofcom should they ever ask.

But it does come back to the issue

It's worded in such a way that someone has thought "MN falls foul of this"

People can find examples of where MN might skirt very close to the law

It's not a separate discussion

There isn't anything inappropriate on here? And certainly no images or videos that are dodgy.

what a silly thing to say. I just thought at the time maybe on day one it's not terribly helpful to advertise VPN sites to get around it

This isn't Reddit. We don't need blokes moaning about how this makes it slightly more difficult to masturbate and dressing it up as a "privacy concern".

This is just basic child safeguarding really. That some people are so dismissive of it is highly concerning.

It’s worded in a way that I got the impression the OP hadn’t read the actual law.

No one has yet shared a Mumsnet link with anything close to something caught by the law. And before this I’ve seen Mumsnet remove whole threads that vaguely maybe if you squint could be caught by the law

Adults are not obliged to curtail their sexuality to compensate for your shoddy parenting, sorry

Considering that there are people who’d love to take this site down, it’s not unreasonable to ask.

There are lots of disordered eating threads on here and if comments like “I’m 9 stone and still need to lose more because I have a jiggly stomach” or “I’m a diet and eat 1100 calories a day” is considered promoting eating disorders then the site is in potential trouble

I’ve seen more photos of fannies and more proana content on mumsnet than any other site I use. That’s becuse on other sites you need to seek it out. Here it’s a “please help, what is this, do I need a doctor?” and oooofff a big up close photo of someone’s vagina.

Also the images of CSA but we don’t seem to talk about that

Yep. "Does anyone know how to get GLP stuff when you're a size 10?"

Is this since they changed to pre approving photos before they are posted? And are you sure these images fall within a definition of pornography within this legislation?

Umm no, as the vpn I use doesn't store any usage data. Most don't.

AND the insidious “tell me about the time you wet the bed” “talk to me about your daughters heavy periods”. Mn is riddled with surreptitious pornographic material. Sure you can’t guard 100% against pervs but forbidding “troll hunting” had left this site wide open to abuse.

And I've seen MN leave up threads which should be deleted...

Their Moderation isn't as robust as you think

And I've seen when sites have implemented vague "content rules" akin to this law and how badly they've worked.

You seem very sure that perfectly legit things like medical images won't get caught out by the law

When it'll be a AI bot somewhere which will be catching out websites and will definitely catch out some "none pornographic nudity". Which will lead to big fines on websites for no reason

You know you can still report this material? You don't need to 'troll hunt'.