An update to a previous post I made not so long ago about age verification requirements as it's being reported (lazily) in the news:
All websites accessible in the UK will be required to perform a risk assessment to see if children accessing their website will see anything not "safe for kids" and if so, must implement age verification. Ofcom will require websites to implement ID verification that is live (ie. via a webcam or front facing camera), verification of Government issued or approved photo ID (as content under 18 will also be expected to require age verification), unique checks on each visit (no longer tied to an account you log in to like what happens with gambling websites now) and continuous checking of ID to ensure that a device is not passed from an adult to a child.
Something that was added that wasn't in the documents before is that all websites accessible in the UK must prevent UK residents from using a VPN, proxy or other technology to bypass age verification. They can't block VPN traffic (yet) but must prevent them from bypassing age verification. And adult websites will be forbidden from promoting such technologies. In effect, a VPN and proxy ban. Further legislation regarding VPN's is being considered by Parliament to curtail any potential workarounds. Ironically this could put an end to all the VPN sponsorships that you've been seeing on videos in recent times as this would violate the law.
Failure to do any of this results in a fine of £18 million or 10% of worldwide revenue, whichever is larger, prison sentences for website owners and blocking by all ISPs who operate in the UK.
The media as usual are focusing on adult websites but a cursory read of the documents on the Ofcom website suggest this is wide reaching and will have consequences for any website accessible in the UK. One example given in an article I read was for small blogs as well as artistic nudity and medical information. There are warnings already that websites will just close forums, comment sections and user generated content in order to protect themselves from ruin.
The receipts to verify for yourself:
And the law itself:
Sounds like a complicated mess to implement. It would be much easier for everyone to just blacklist the UK from their sites.
There's already a precedent. When the EU enacted their privacy shitshow laws a lot of US news sites simply blocked visitors from the EU.
the difference here is the stipulation about vpns. by the sound of it, it's not enough to simply region block entire countries. you have to assume any VPN traffic you get could possibly come from the UK and therefore implement their age verification laws.
I would say there needs to be an international treaty on the internet, because it's bullshit that one country can enforce their laws on citizens of another. however, knowing the state of the UN, I'd rather that not happen.
Well, they can't really. Even extraterritorial laws require a nexus to the country enforcing them. They could try and hold a foreign national responsible for UK law, but they're not likely to get any cooperation from other countries, which is required to make these sorts of things work, and they would just open themselves up to retaliation.
I can't think of a single country that would tolerate a foreign power converting its citizens who maintain websites into unpaid employees of the UK government by trying to compel them to sleuth out whether an IP address is a VPN, and where it ultimately points back to. It's probably beyond the technical means of most websites, and certainly not financially feasible even if you could do it.
I imagine a non-UK government's answer to this problem would be to just direct everyone to block traffic to the UK and that they will swat down any attempts to identify or charge their citizens under UK law.
only facebook and google can afford to do this. now you see why they lobby so hard for this crap
It’s an outright attack on US companies by the UK.
Trump needs to sanction the UK/EU until they get back in their irrelevant little box.
And that's what everyone will do. The UK Government won't care one bit. If anything, they're complaining that the law doesn't go far enough.
Needless to say, those in the UK had better give their final goodbyes in the next few months to the rest of the world.
That's by design.
Anyone who toes the party line gets a blind eye. Anyone who criticizes the rulers gets fined for 10% of worldwide revenue.
You don't need to blacklist, you just have to not have operations where Starmer can get his hands on them.
at least they aren't speaking German
I assume this is in reference to the "the good guys lost World War II" sentiment.
I'm genuinely curious, what makes you think the National Socialist Germans, the Fascist Italians, or the Imperial Japanese would want anything to do with a free Internet? forget age verification, creating any website or posting anything on the web would not be possible without a license of some kind, and access would be heavily restricted to State approved sites.
its less about whether the NatSocs would want something to do with the free internet and more that Britain was not fighting for freedom at all in ww2 . If Germany had won Britain would have a government that might not be free but at least they would still be White and conservative. Instead now they have a government that is not free AND they are globohomo.
You don't even know that it's about power politics, and not the excuses by which they get another poor bastard to die for his country?
"Get fucked" - every website that doesn't have assets tied to the UK.
If the UK wants to block access to websites that don't meet their standards, that's on them. They can't draft foreign companies and citizens into playoing detective to see if everyone who accesses their web page is evading UK law with a VPN.
I predict that most sites will just block access from UK IP addresses and then walk away from the matter. The net result is thatt UK citizens will end up with the same internet privileges as someone in North Korea and the rest of the world will just keep on doing business as usual.
I think that's their plan. There's already been MPs who have stated that they want even more power and the BBC keeps pushing them to do it (probably because having less competition or preferably no competition would be beneficial for them). What they advocate for would be impossible unless the UK exits the Internet and goes full Intranet.
The thing is, North Korea can do this because they are a pariah state so there's no consequence from implementing an Intranet. The UK isn't (yet) and such a move would destroy their economy.
Just saying, I called this shit years ago.
Insert Raz0rfist here.
Even by UK standards, this is bizarre. It's an identity thief's dream, not to mention how you do a 'continuous chekcing of ID'.
Trump should sanction the UK if they try to bully others into complying with their totalitarian agenda.
I'm guessing it will be timed checks. It's going to be a mess to implement. One issue I can see is how do you enforce age verification on TV's and game consoles?
I'm assuming that game console companies have enough money to bribe the right people that there will be exemptions granted.
No. This is why it's going to be a mess come July.
Everyone is going to need to buy special new TVs and wouldn't you know it, you can only buy them from the BBC so there is no way to avoid the licensing fee.
I can imagine TV's might have inbuilt cameras in future but it's more likely to be verification via an app that will unlock the content on a TV or games console.
Forget something as basic as alooped camera feed, what happens when you make a realistic Vtuber avatar (they already exist) and feed a faked camera stream in to the continuous checking?
Asking because I actively want to subvert the UK's retarded shit and I think it's funny.
The UK and Australia are battling it out to see who can setup North Korea 2.0 the quickest.
There are no shitskin rape gangs in norko
The BBC has an exemption from the Online Safety Act. No, I am not making that up.
Waiting for Musk to cuck to this, like he did Brazil. :/
H1B.
"fuck you, blow me" - american companies
...if only...
This just retarded, all it'll do is kill off ANY online company wanting to set up in the UK, piss off people when they have to jump through hoops to just use the Internet.
And kids will STILL find a way around it as, knowing the UK government, they'll have the LEAST knowledgeable people try to implement it.
Speaking to my UK mates, one was saying, it feels like Labour are trying to piss of EVERYONE one by one whereas the Conservatives just were generally a disappointment.
I guess mudslime rape gangs don't use the internet.
UK government doesn’t really care about porn. If it cared about the kids it wouldn’t have covered up their gang rapes.
it wants this system in place so it can cut off social media comments about the grooming gangs.
It does care if a certain demographic uses it (incels). The UK Government is hoping that the adult websites will do like in several US states and block the UK so the UK Government doesn't have to implement an outright ban.
For anyone celebrating that this means the end of OnlyFans (it's UK based for a start), all that will happen is that women will be told to put their clothes on and only sell "girlfriend experiences" so they can avoid the harshest parts of the law. Although I think OF is also on borrowed time with the UK Government because of their perceived user base too (despite the fact that 90% of users on that website are married men).
Yeah that sounds about right for how nigh impossible and braindead the proposal should be for Westminster.
As others point out the most likely result of all this is everyone else just telling the UK to go pound sand and geoblocking the entire region.
Look on the bright side. When the data breach happens everyone will know what degenerate shit our MPs like tugging their todger to.
A leak of a "perverts database" is inevitable. Who remembers Ashley Madison?
... gonna miss you u/bigjay ...
;) I'll keep the harbor tea hot for you...
This is a reminder that you can find adult content on both Bing and Google search, even with safe-search on. Very easily. Same with Safari-search. Therefore, any brits here NEED to sue them if they do not engage in the practice.
Likewise, the BBC website can feature pictures of torture or fire or devastation not suitable for kids, and likewise needs constant checks. Sue them if they don't.
Please, Brits, put out an arrest for the CEOs of Apple, Google, and Microsoft ("arrest of the website owners") and charge them 10% of their worldwide earnings for the privilege to operate in the UK.
Oh, and Amazon, too. You can find adult materials for sale on Amazon, so to view the website, Bezos ALSO needs to be in prison.
Every website will have to implement this if they have anything that is not "safe for kids". Search engines were singled out alongside social media networks as examples of websites that will have to implement age verification.
NOTHING, except maybe meme websites that are just one line of plain text like "has the world been destroyed yet" (if it loads, it says "no"), is entirely "safe for kids". Club Penguin, famously a kids online game, was loaded with 4chan shitposters and shit-disturbers who could make the site not "safe for kids".
The Weather Network's website runs automatic google ads. Some of those are abjectly sexual or gambling in nature. ANYTHING that runs google adsense is unsafe for kids.
The media are playing the "this only affects adult websites" line but anyone who reads through the documents and has a functioning brain can see the wide reach these requirements have.
Good post. Thanks!
Regular ID checks with facial recognition is only the start, they'll want to go full 1984 telescreen with this with an always on face cam. Everything a Brit looks at online logged to your face, with the added bonus of 'body language experts' deducing your opinions even if you don't post comments. Sneer and roll you eyes at the advert of a British historic figure being played by a black actor? That's a hate crime!
It will be sold as a convenient way to log in to websites and to "protect the children" but it will be used for nefarious means.
Porn companies need to redirect all UK requests to a video of the porn with kier starmer’s head obscuring the genitalia
I don't understand how they think they're going to determine if I am accessing a site via VPN or not...
The website will be responsible for identifying VPN traffic from the UK. How that will work, I don't know. Like I say, the implementation of this is going to be a mess. It's likely websites will have to block all VPN traffic which also hits those outside the UK or block access to the UK and tell the UK authorities to get lost if they accuse a website of allowing someone from the UK to get around age restricted content via a VPN. The Government could also petition payment processors to refuse processing payments to VPN's like what happened to anime sites in Japan.
I believe there will be another attempt to ban VPN's by the Government in future legislation.
TL;DR we won't have to worry about retarded ass britbong opinions on our internet any more.