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.