Ask HN: Online activities to be made impossible by the UK Online Safety Bill

I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of things which it might be impossible (or at least very difficult) for a private individual to do under the Online Safety Bill.

Starters for ten:

1) Minecraft / MineTest server 2) IRC server 3) Mastodon server 4) BBS 5) ... please continue

I'm not fully sure about all this - as I understand it, if you allow chat or user generated content, you become a private service provider, and then have a host of responsibilities including annual audits of whether a significant proportion of your users are minors. If they are then you need to use a (commercial?) age verification tool and monitor everything assiduously. Difficult to see most people being able to satisfy those requirements.

Good shout, I'll try to squeeze in something within the character limit.

Interestingly, if you run a BBS through the telephone system, you'll be immune, as the bill specifies "the Internet", but:

1. I think the lines have jitter now they're over IP anyhow.

2. Bit niche...

This might be useful from June, can’t vouch for correctness.

https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/interface/2022/the-online-s...

My understanding is that the OSB creates a responsibility for Ofcom to create a regulatory system for discouraging online harms.

Has Ofcom actually said what these regulations will be?

Is there any reason to expect them to be as dystopian as you predict? The interim codes of practice that the government published don't even apply at all to individuals. They also acknowledge that smaller companies should not be expected to be subject to the same level of regulation as large companies.

My experience with online activists' predictions of imminent dystopia is that they generally turn out to be extremely overblown. Hopefully that's true this time as well.