Slashdot Mirror
Online Pornography Age Checks To Be Mandatory in UK From 15 July (theguardian.com)
The UK's age verification system for online pornography will become mandatory on 15 July, the government has confirmed. From a report: From that date, commercial providers of online pornography will be required to carry out "robust" age verification checks on users, in order to keep children from accessing adult content. Websites that refuse to implement the checks face being blocked by UK internet service providers or having their access to payment services withdrawn.The digital minister, Margot James, welcomed the introduction of the rules, saying: "Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online."
She added, "The introduction of mandatory age verification is a world first, and we've taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this." Will Gardner, the chief executive of Childnet, said: "We hope that the introduction of this age verification will help in protecting children, making it harder for young people to accidentally come across online pornography, as well as bringing in the same protections that we use offline to protect children from age-restricted goods or services."
She added, "The introduction of mandatory age verification is a world first, and we've taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and these new laws will help us achieve this." Will Gardner, the chief executive of Childnet, said: "We hope that the introduction of this age verification will help in protecting children, making it harder for young people to accidentally come across online pornography, as well as bringing in the same protections that we use offline to protect children from age-restricted goods or services."
Yey for Free Speech in Great Britain.
Soon, all the kids will use TOR browsers to show that they're anywhere but in the UK. It shouldn't take long for them to beat the system designed by people that don't understand technology beyond using a power button.
Teens get their porn via paid subscription. Yeah right! Who are those who think commercial porn websites are the only way to access porn. I imagine they are the same ones who wight click to chose "Copy" and "Paste" from the context menu and type Google in the Google search engine to find Google.
As always look one step beyond. This isn't about pornography, it's a wedge to gain control over internet communication. You start, of course, by "protecting the children from pornography". You end by making people confirm their real ID before they post on, say, slashdot. The goal here is to remove anonymity. Of course it's impossible but our politicians are so thick they won't realise it's impossible until they've forced everybody into the criminal underworld.
... the kids will still be free to watch people being murdered, tortured, blown up, stabbed, shot etc etc on various forums and sites. But thats ok. Just so long as they don't get to see any tits or arse then they'll be fine.
Sex - its monstrous! Should be outlawed! Hopefully in the year of our Lord 1819 in which the UK government lives will see the end of these vile online fornicators!
The internet is an enabler; it's an incredible amount of information at your finger tips. Almost by definition, it's supposed to be dangerous via providing the means by which people can become critical thinkers.....
Oh, I get it.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
That depends how you define "worked". Does it stop the images appearing on the internet? Of course not. Does it stop people viewing them? Please. What it does do is it means everyone who views or owns any of those images is now considered as viewing "extreme pornography" and lumped in with pedophiles. Now the government has a nice big stick to hit a large portion of the population should they wish.
AC's look upon this bill and despair! It will become a framework for verifying your ID in other sectors as well. I don't know that this law will actually protect kids from seeing the pr0n they so desparately want to surf but maybe a good solution will come out of it and we can free the world of bot accounts and anonymous cowards
So, let me see if I understand this:
No one has a definition of what constitutes pornography. Like pictures in the clouds it is in the ye of the beholder.
Pornography is not illegal, per se.
Some pornography is illegal and some pornography that is legal may become illegal in the future.
The UK Government wants to sell a "license" to look at a web page based on the idea that it may contain a thing which no one can apply a concrete definition to and which, at any given time, may or may not be illegal?
SIGN ME UP!
If Snowden, Manning, and Assange have not pulled your head out of your arse, you are a lost cause.
Hey, UK: You do know this will only stop the most casual and unintelligent of underage kids from seeing porn, right?
They'll use TOR, or a VPN, or a proxy, or get access to someone else's 'porn license', and that'll just cover the actual out-and-out porn sites, it won't cover all the other sites that can have porn on them, or Torrenting porn, and so on, and so on.
Meanwhile, where are UK parents, whose job it really is supposed to be to monitor their kids' accessing of the Internet in the first place?
Let's just be frank about this, UK legislators: what you're really doing here, is trying to legislate morality. Your 'age verification' requirement is really just a 'shame factor', to discourage people from accessing pornography entirely, regardless of age, by requiring them to reveal themselves in a public setting. You're just hiding this effort behind the age-old 'think of the children!' tactic.
Then, of course, there's the age-old problem of defining what is and is not 'pornography': basically, you can't. It's literally in the eye of the beholder. So then your 'protect the children from pornography' law will be used for censorship of any number of things on the Internet that you Torries find 'objectionable'. Wonder how long it'll be, before that turns into censoring any and all criticism of the Government?
But I digress. Enjoy your wasted Taxpayer money and wasted effort. Things like this flavor of censorship have been tried before, and they never work.