Hat tip to Imp who tipped me off to this. Other things to note that lying is now an offence if the victim and judge/magistrate believes you have lied. And anything deemed threatening depending on how the victim determines is also covered under the law. Both invite huge fines and jail semtences.
If you are outside the UK, contact your representative and ask them why is the UK imposing its jurisdiction on your territory.
And from the summer all sites must have robust age verification systems to prevent children accessing a range of content.
Being "safe for kids" is no longer an exemption and it was never just for "adult content".
ETA: First known casualty of the new law, browser based MMO Urban Dead closed on the 14th citing the Online Safety Act's requirements for moderation unviable and unworkable.
"They're incels. They've posted on their social media accounts explaining that they haven't been able to find someone to date, someone to be intimate with. They have created this echo chamber of violence against women.
So instead of dealing with the individuals vile acts, the BBC decided they would exploit it into an agenda to paint a whole group of men as a dangerous threat to women.
Annie, who works as a translator, says she wants to drive awareness of male violence towards women.
Yes, they are actively trying to push the idea that being unattractive is "male violence towards women".
Modern day "journalism" which should be more accurately described as activism.
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:
