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UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#101

Post by ksangeelee »

munin wrote: post #69
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #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…

Maybe the way to counter that is with healthy, full throated and sex positive sex education? Instead of trying to bury or hide the "bad" information counter it with lots and lots of good information? Just a thought.

I can't think of any other way to address this problem. I increasingly lose control of what my children see as they get older and more independent.

The crux of the problem is the "Check this out!" scenario with the kids who have smartphones, or unsupervised Internet access at home. I simply can't protect them from that.

In addition to unabashed education, my focus will be on making sure they know how to put things into perspective; that shocking stuff they might see represents extremes of human behaviour, far removed from the world they know.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#102

Post by vacri »

kristopolous wrote: post #55
patrickaljord wrote: post #40

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.

People shouldn't be doing perverted stuff in the bedroom, y'see. It should be in the invitation-only high-class clubs!

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#103

Post by viraptor »

Nursie wrote: post #64
jaclaz wrote: 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…

>> On the other hand ... might somehow produce as a side effect a reduction of customers. It may, on UK sites, on "legitimate" sites. Not so much on the darkweb, or via proxies, or IRC or Usenet or ....

No need to get that technical. Reddit has lots of very targeted subreddits. All behind main Reddit HTTPS and with all the content on Imgur / Reddit images. (Also HTTPS enabled)

There's lots of other domains like that which provide quality content and no real way of enforcing age limits.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#104

Post by flexie »

tici_88 wrote: post #48

This has probably very little to do with porn and is most likely the first step in the UK's government attempt to track more closely who is accessing what on the internet and even have the power to blacklist and make inaccessible areas of the internet they deem inappropriate or inconvenient. The enforceability of this is hugely questionable (they have heard of VPN right?) and the societal benefit of less porn is also…

These firewalls are traditionally viewed as censorship from a free speech perspective. And I don't disagree with that. But I have started to wonder whether the Great Chinese Firewall, the Turkish one, and what seriously looks like a budding British firewall shouldn't also be viewed as import regulation like any other:

China wants to sell cars in the US: The US imposes import duties on the cars. The effect is that the US automobile industry is protected, survives and can develop.

The US wants to sell web or smart phone applications (often really advertisement) in China: China blocks it. The effect is that the Chinese IT industry is protected, survives and can develop.

Whereas I don't like trade barriers, there is an unbalance in the way trade in bytes crosses borders without tariffs and the way goods are subject to import duties, taxes and sometimes outright banned due to policies deemed vital to the importing country such as environmental concerns, health regulation etc. We also protect our industries through government subsidies.

The US East Coast and Northern Europe would completely dominate search, social media, email etc. all over the world and not just in the Western world, if it wasn't regulated. That would be fine if our part of the world opened up for the goods and services they produce in Asia and Africa. But we don't.

We are quick to throw around accusations of censorship, but for billions in the developing world, access to our markets would probably mean more to their life and to further democracy than the opportunity to like kittens on facebook or read nightly tweets from Trump.

No doubt sovereign firewalls are often used by regimes to repress free speech. But let's also not forget the financial part of it. In the Western world we exceedingly sell bytes. We cannot expect for the developing world (of which the UK is not part, I know) to allow our software if we don't allow their hardware.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#105

Post by Rjevski »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #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…

Is most porn actually disgusting and extreme? Most of what you would stumble upon on the "tube" is pretty tame, so unless you're specifically looking for extreme/disgusting you're not likely to find something "extreme".

Have there even been evidence on how porn actually hurts people at a large scale? I'd love to see that evidence.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#106

Post by icebraining »

godzilla82 wrote: post #95
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #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…

I hate this attitude you have towards "some young people". Are we supposed to assume that you have sufficiently grown up just because you make this comment? If not, you dont have any right to judge others. Now coming back to your question, if both consenting adults think that "some fairly disgusting .... acts" are the norm, when who are you to say other wise. In case one of the adults doesnt thinks so, they can move…

Who said anything about "adults"? This topic is about access by minors. (Not that I agree with the plan, mind you.)

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#107

Post by have_faith »

I agree with most here, it's a wasted effort and mostly the start of a slippery slope towards future policies.

But to the problem it purports to solve, underage kids viewing material that they shouldn't be viewing, what do you propose as a workable solution? I don't mean a 15 year old occasionally viewing a normal porn video, porn sites these days house all sorts of things you wouldn't want your kids to stumble across.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#108

Post by [deleted] »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #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…

[deleted]

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#109

Post by Freak_NL »

viraptor wrote: post #103
Nursie wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> On the other hand ... might somehow produce as a side effect a reduction of customers. It may, on UK sites, on "legitimate" sites. Not so much on the darkweb, or via proxies, or IRC or Usenet or ....

No need to get that technical. Reddit has lots of very targeted subreddits. All behind main Reddit HTTPS and with all the content on Imgur / Reddit images. (Also HTTPS enabled) There's lots of other domains like that which provide quality content and no real way of enforcing age limits.

This legislation might make finding porn at least non-trivial if broad community sites likes Reddit, Tumblr, and 4chan are found to be applicable. These would then just be blocked by British ISPs until they do implement some form of adult verification check.

Some might, some will simply dismiss the legislation as not something they want to be bothered with.

Of course, blocking such sites might also trigger an unwanted backlash within the UK, which may be precisely why they might not be targeted at all.

One does wonder if the drafters of this legislation even considered this.

Re: UK plans age verification for porn websites from 2018

#110

Post by notahacker »

jaclaz wrote: post #7
Nursie wrote: post #2

Which will definitely, once and for all, stop teenagers looking at porn. Definitely.

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…

> On the other hand needing to ... give access to the web camera to the site to verify your identity

I can imagine some nefarious porn baron making an awful lot of money out of selling (or being paid not to sell) webcam footage of people browsing their website...

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