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UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 162 posts

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#52
post #11

This is, of course, completely barmy regulation. The most interesting thing will be the decision over what classifies as a porn website. Currently, as a teenager, you're probably most likely to 'stumble across' (i.e. view unintentionally) pornography on non-porn sites like Reddit or Tumblr. Will the regulations require age verification for these sites? If not it will not even begin to achieve its stated aims.

AFAIK it's commercial sites only, so you're dead right this legislation has failed before they even try and implement it.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#54

I would like to present to the court exhibit 1: The EU/ or UK "Cookie Laws" AKA "ePrivacy directive." In the months before and after its implementation there was a lot of discussion around the (vast) grey areas in the laws. After some months, the internet has coalesced on answers. All sites need to implement a nag screen for unknown users, in order to get "informed consent". This consent will be stored as a cookie an…

I've never heard a peep from anyone about the site I admin which still doesn't have one of those cookie-naggers. Hopefully, when the UK leaves the EU, the one good thing that might come out of it will be getting rid of that silly legislation.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#55

Funny that the British conservative party that came up with the term "Nanny State" is literally behaving like a nanny now.

the political claims have always been silly. They support small tiny government except for the big expansive military. They want big government out of people's lives except for what they consume and do in the bedroom.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#56
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that will depend on how exactly the way the customers "will have to prove they are 18", as an example we know how no teenager under 18 would ever tick a box near "Yes, I am 18 or older". On the other hand needing to provide a photo or scanned image of your driving license or passport AND give access to the web camera to the site to verify your identity, while reasonably effective might somehow produce as a side…

It's in the article - sites will be required to request credit card details.

so how do they think this will prevent it? cannot children just borrow the numbers from their parents cards? as long as no charge is made they should be safe.

now it would get very interesting if any card used for verification was in turn required to send a letter to the card holder about such verification.

still the requirements seem more lenient than what some online game (think MMO) services require when they request proof of identify to secure ownership of an account

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#58
post #35

>Mr Hancock said: "All this means that while we can enjoy the freedom of the web, the UK will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world." This had me chuckling - I grew up in the Gulf region - they have the "nobody gets access" policy - way more robust.

Yeah, also the same for Turkey under the dictatorship of Erdoğan. Internet there is amazingly robust. They also iterate among beautiful blocked page designs for artistic freedom: https://www.google.com/search?q=eri%C5%9Fim+engellenmi%C5%9F...

Back when this craziness started, they had even blocked the sites giving STI information because they had "sex" in them. Not sure how it is right now.

The promotion in any form for alcoholic beverages are banned too. This is the web site for the biggest beer maker: http://efespilsen.com.tr/ (It says basically that according to a change in regulation, they aren't allowed to have a customer-facing website anymore).

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#59
I understand this is unpopular on HN and I don't think this is the right approach either but what is the solution? Or do you think there's no problem at all? I think it is a potential problem where some young people don't realize that some fairly disgusting and extreme sex acts are not the norm and start dating thinking that is what you do instead of loving someone, that would cause them serious issues in developing relationships.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#60

This sounds silly, but the existing situation is also silly. Kids aren't allowed to go to pornographic movies in cinemas. What's the point of those restrictions, which people have been happy with for probably 100 years, when they are allowed to do all that online? It sounds like the law should be harmonized one way or another - open everything up or close everything down, otherwise it's pointless.

I'm not sure that analogy holds; the Internet is just such a different thing from cinemas. Still, I'm sure no-one actually has a problem with the concept of preventing under-18s from watching porn online, it's the implementation that's the tricky bit. For example, no-one has a problem with cinema restrictions, but they might do if you had to hand over credit card details to watch a film, and if it were still trivially easy for under-18s to sneak into the cinema.
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