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.

Comments

This just in...

[Baron_Yam]

Visits to foreign-hosted porn sites from the UK mysteriously skyrocket after 2018/04. VPN services experience a slight bump as well.

Clueless

[Harold Halloway]

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.

With the added bonus

[computational super]

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...

Re:With the added bonus

[Xest]

To be fair last time we had a hardline fundamentalist Christian like Theresa May able to do shit like this called Jacqui Smith it was her husband's porn habits that got leaked.

It was quite funny watching her fall to her husband's secret porn viewing habits which he paid for using her parliamentary expenses as she waged a crusade against porn.

If she had any sense she'd have claimed it as research into ease of access, but thankfully like most hardline religious zealots she was astoundingly dumb, though for whatever reason the BBC seems to randomly help her with her crusade by giving her air time about the topic now and then.

But really this is the type of shit we're going to get more of thanks to Brexit - many leading Brexiteers are also hardline fundamentalist Christians like May, and without the European Courts to protect us against their particularly vile brand of fascism it'll be a free ride for them on issues like this. That's why the Rees-Moggs of the world and such are so desperate to prevent May falling and to avoid any kind of compromise.

Slipper slope

[grumpy_old_grandpa]

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?

Re:And in other news

[mjwx]

Sales of US based VPN's to people in the UK double in a matter of weeks.

The US?

With their crazy laws, insane president and that extradition treaty... Hell no, I'll just use the same Norwegian end point I use to access torrent sites.

Our conservative government may be batshit insane but the US's makes our government look well and truly grounded in reality.