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Porn Websites in UK Ordered To Introduce Age Checks From Next Year (bbc.com)
Reader dryriver shares an article: A nine-month countdown to the introduction of compulsory age checks on online pornography seen from the UK has begun. The April 2018 goal to protect under-18s was revealed as digital minister Matt Hancock signed the commencement order for the Digital Economy Act, which introduces the requirement. But details as to how the scheme will work have yet to be finalised. Experts who advised ministers said the targeted date seemed "unrealistic". The act also sets out other new laws including punishing the use of bots to snatch up scores of concert tickets, and mandating the provision of subtitles on catch-up TV. The age-check requirement applies to any website or other online platform that provides pornography "on a commercial basis" to people in the UK. It allows a regulator to fine any business that refuses to comply and to ask third-party payment services to withdraw support. The watchdog will also be able to force internet providers to block access to non-compliant services.
Visits to foreign-hosted porn sites from the UK mysteriously skyrocket after 2018/04. VPN services experience a slight bump as well.
And once again, the Tories fail to get that the Internet does in fact extend beyond the borders of the United Kingdom.
In other words, good luck with getting XHamster to implement an age check.
Of course, with these age checks, the sites themselves (and the government) will have a permanent, verifiable record of what kind of things you look at online. Which, as we know from the history of the surveillance state, almost always ends up "leaked" when it has the potential to embarrass somebody...
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
To implement. I meant to say hard to implement.
DaveyJJ
They must be prudes themselves Well, what’s gonna happen is that the rest of the world will firewall limeys instead.
>Are aged 18 or over?
Yes!
>OK. You may enter, figuratively.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
When websites try to use these filters you know what happens, the Hon'ble Minister name is printed as Matt Han****
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
They have lots of porn under open soource licences.
The US has had this requirement for more than a decade.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
The slippery slope of censorship and surveillance in the UK is continuing at a disturbingly predictable path. The ISP level blocking mechanisms are already implemented and in production. Now it's just a matter of adding more sites, and control more of what citizens are allow to watch. Theresa May wants government back-doors in social network and communication apps. Not revealing your encryption key and password can land you in jail for years.
First they filtered child molestation.
Then they came for the pirate sites.
Then they blocked communication of terrorists.
Then it was any mature content.
Next? Opposing political opinions? Full ban on naked body images of any kind? All encrypted communication blocked and illegal without a back-door?
Why do I get the feeling this is funded by British "newspapers" like The Sun and others that have titties inside?
Either to increase their sales or just they're getting bored of constantly trying to convince the UK to abandon it's healthcare system and be more like the health utopia that is the US.
I wish this legislation was in place when I was growing up, perhaps it could have saved me from exposure to various pornography. This way I wouldn't have turned out a deranged sex-crazed maniac fixated on chasing equine tail.
Sales of US based VPN's to people in the UK double in a matter of weeks.
Another politician who does not have a clue about the internet.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
IF YES CLICK HERE!
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Don't you have to be legal age to get on the Internet anyway? Aren't parents supervising their children? I think the responsibility rest with them, and if those parents think the kids are too old for that, then that too is the parents choice.
Once more, politicians showing their complete ignorance of the way Internet works. But, extra points to the UK in its efforts to become a police state.
Don't be silly.
Political opinions not identical to those expressed by the state are sedition and therefore terrorism, and ANY content not explicitly authorized by The Party is far too mature for any mind too young to be either in-office or suffering from terminal affluenza to safely read. It could scar them for the rest of their family's soon to be shortened life!
Doesn't have to be a pig.
Sure, the credit card idea, seems sound, it's not like you can access valid credit card info anywhere online...after they complete this project they should solve Mozilla’s decentralize the internet challenge then figure out how to stream music online without it being downloadable, cheers mate!
You jest, but you are right on point. The laws are already in place, the technical implementations are already in place. Now it's just a matter of taking the next step into full totalitarian dictatorship.
In fact, if it wasn't for Theresa May being so utterly repulsive, she would have managed this backed by a landslide elected victory. If UK ever gets a charming leader, like Putin or Hitler (both also initially elected and with high approval ratings), it'll be a slam dunk.
Can someone explain to me why teenager seeking porn should be prevented from finding it?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Umm... Hitler wasn't elected.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The UK now requires people to hand over credit card information to verify access to view porn sites.
Won't be long before that information gets leaked or hacked... ...and then someone will probably use it to buy child pornography off what I'm assuming is Tor.
It's almost as if the UK learnt absolutely nothing from Operation Ore.
This is correct but the nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag at the time. Though they had no majority.
Come to think of it if you replace nazis with the word tories you get a similar situation to Theresa May's election. Though I am unsure if there is any actual difference between a nazi and a tory.
* checks wikipedia *
Nope none at all it seems.
When someone signs up for the site (which could be free or paid), require a credit card as the age verification, where it will charge $1 then refund it back, once you put in all of the required info (name, card#, DATE OF BIRTH, etc).
That's what I don't get about government and tech firms... they're so busy trying to "think outside the box" they miss the solutions that someone came up with 10 or 20 years ago.
This kind of ignorant policy making is annoying because for it to actually work at all the following must be true:
Implement a global white list for all of the internet (AKA absolute censorship and 1x10^-9999999% of sites available)
Of course what they will actually do is approach it through legislation which will do about fuck all because UK !== internet... but a small piece of me wants them to attempt absolute censorship so the idiots in parliament can see first hand what a bunch of fucking pillocks they all are as they realise it would mean self destruction of the UK economy. Don't meddle with what you don't understand... oh wait that's basically the definition of politics, yes this shit makes me very cynical.
Does this mean that ad funded free sites are exempt or not? I'm guessing it is ambiguous and they will need a judge to say that it does apply to them.
The main punishment will be a lack of paying British customers. That punishment won't affect ad-driven porn sites. It will also mean Brits can access the small amount of free porn held on subscription sites.
I'm sure a lot of Americans will be screaming 'censorship' but the UK national Tv network, has from 25 years upto 5 years ago, deliberately broadcast images of bare-breasted schoolgirls, erect penises and even people fucking, into people's homes. That laxness is different to the road-side suicides accidentally broadcast by US networks.
This seems too narrow a law for censorship and I hope the BBC policy of minimal censorship remains.
I hope the age check is like the old Leisure Suit Larry age check quiz.
. .
With what, time travel?
My first sexual experience was looking (and...) at the lingerie pics. They never asked if I was over 18. I feel cheated by the unregulated world I had to live in.
Or worse will happen again. Incompetent vigilantes not able to discriminate between real criminals and the innocent
When Mnsiter Conroy (Labor) tried to introduce internet censorship a few years ago the outcry was so large and pervasive that they had to back down They did not do so lightly, the saga went on for years. Conroy did everything to force it through. But then an election loomed and it was dropped.
The current conservative Liberals would love to introduce it, but having watched Conroy burn they do not dare. (Things could be different if they ever did really well in the polls.)
The UK public, on the other hand, just rolled over. We do not quite have the tabloid press that they do though.
(Not to say all is well down under, surveillance, etc. is hot. But we value their porn far more than our British cousins. )
(Conroy is a devout catholic, who having left parliament took up a job lobbying for the poker machine industry.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I note that Will Gardner (Childnet CEO) says: "Protecting children from exposure, including accidental exposure, to adult content is incredibly important, given the effect it can have on young people,".
So will he also be pushing to protect children from other types of web site that can have effects on them ? I am thinking of religious sites. The views expressed on these can cause considerable trauma; think of the effect of seeing the views expressed about homosexuality on a young gay boy ? Or how about the views expressed about people of different, or no, faith ?
If you think pornography is benign, you need to read the website www.yourbrainonporn.com. It's normally only when the problem has already occurred that people start to question what they are doing to their minds, by looking pornography.
The U.K. has a land border with the Republic of Ireland and a border with the Kingdom of Spain.
It may even have one with the French Republic because of the tunnel