I think people are misunderstanding the purpose of this law and how it will be rolled out in reality. I work for a company which handles hundreds of websites hosted in the UK (some are household names), and I have a lot of connections in the industry. Nobody I speak to is even aware that this law is going into effect. That is intentional.
The purpose of this law is not to make every website that operates in the UK implement age verification, it's to ensure that EVERY website and EVERY company is in violation of this law by default. It's a political gambit which they can invoke at any point in the future to persecute any organisation that the British state takes a disliking to. Classic authoritarianism. As Beria said, "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime."
Exactly this. A legislative framework regulating entire industries is always like this. It's designed to be impossible to comply with and still operate your business. Just like anti-corruption laws that everyone breaks, but only Eric Adams or Marine Le Pen are prosecuted for: it's not meant to be universally enforced: it's there to persecute the regime's political enemies.
I think people are misunderstanding the purpose of this law and how it will be rolled out in reality. I work for a company which handles hundreds of websites hosted in the UK (some are household names), and I have a lot of connections in the industry. Nobody I speak to is even aware that this law is going into effect. That is intentional.
The purpose of this law is not to make every website that operates in the UK implement age verification, it's to ensure that EVERY website and EVERY company is in violation of this law by default. It's a political gambit which they can invoke at any point in the future to persecute any organisation that the British state takes a disliking to. Classic authoritarianism. As Beria said, "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime."
Exactly this. A legislative framework regulating entire industries is always like this. It's designed to be impossible to comply with and still operate your business. Just like anti-corruption laws that everyone breaks, but only Eric Adams or Marine Le Pen are prosecuted for: it's not meant to be universally enforced: it's there to persecute the regime's political enemies.