Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

theregister.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 185 posts

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#61

Post by shapefrog »

anomie wrote: post #45
toyg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact they keep trying despite repeatedly being humiliated by market realities, though, indicates the lobbying pressure by pro-censorship groups is quite high. This is bound to produce something eventually.

Are they being humiliated though? Feels like they get lots of press when announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate, then when the whole thing gets abandoned it happens with almost no attention. The current government seems to be well aware that most of the time announcing a policy has a much higher ROI than actually implementing one (cf all the times pre-existing spending c…

> announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate

I really dont see anyone in the electorate clamouring for any of this stuff. Announcing the same policy being told it is a shit idea and announcing it again 6 months later is much harder to sell than the recycled spending (which they tend to just lie and say it is in addition to the last lot they announced anyway). That said, the electorate dont actually care much (unless it is a penny off the price of a pint or something) so it is hardly a humiliation when these ideas go nowhere and it makes the government look busy.

I can only assume that the driver is the security services, or just recycling past homework to look busy. As noted in many other comments they try all sorts of seemingly stupid ideas in this space - banning all encryption has failed countless times, adult verification is already a thing on mobile networks, and logging every online activity has slipped through and passed.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#62

Post by sofixa »

iqanq wrote: post #50
viraptor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened in the EU? You don't need a credit card to access porn or Facebook in the EU.

You need a credit card to watch age-restricted videos on YouTube.

It's a Google thing, in some cases ( probably A/B testing), and it has nothing to do with the EU.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#63

Post by toyg »

oxfordmale wrote: post #48

This needs to be seen in the context of the political situation in the UK. Boris Johnson, the current PM, is currently on this 9th and last political live. During the strictest period of lockdown, when UK citizens where not able to say goodbye to loved ones dying in hospitals, several parties were organised at his residence . It is alleged he attended two of them himself and was photographed drinking beer. In attempt…

It's good not to underestimate the situation though - few things are as dangerous as a desperate government. If they can start wars to divert attention, they can certainly force bad laws. This goes double in the UK, where the executive is effectively all-powerful in practice since the Blair reforms.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#65

Post by austhrow743 »

d13 wrote: post #27
habosa wrote: post #23

People don’t realize how invasive the UK govt is when it comes to internet monitoring. Today if you try to access adult content on a UK mobile device you get blocked by age verification. You have to call your mobile provider and prove your age (it’s a once-per-contract thing). One of the ways you can prove your age is with a credit card. But I imagine it’s a large deterrent because not many people want to call Vodafo…

I’ve come to the realization I really should be using a VPN, for so many reasons. I really know nothing much them - any recommendations?

Depending on your reasons, a seedbox that comes with built in vpn capabilities out of the box could be an option.

I pay €5/month to ultracc for a server I can torrent with. It just happens to come with a vpn installed as a bonus.

Mullvad is the same cost for just a vpn. I'm sure it's better in many ways that people will list below but for the purposes of getting around government internet blocks where you're not then expecting g men to kick in your door for getting around them, openvpn installed on whatever random server works fine.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#66

Post by shapefrog »

hughrr wrote: post #13

Oh no they’re not. People will start buying shitty VPNs advertised on prime time TV instead and entirely side step the issue but create two more at the same time. Think we need a new national anthem now along the lines of https://youtu.be/P1CyPjQQTAM

I would rather give facebook my credit card info than a shitty VPN my credit card info and my money.

Use code shittyVPN for 95% off our Best VPN in the World service for life.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#67

Post by Wildgoose »

mellosouls wrote: post #35
habosa wrote: post #23

People don’t realize how invasive the UK govt is when it comes to internet monitoring. Today if you try to access adult content on a UK mobile device you get blocked by age verification. You have to call your mobile provider and prove your age (it’s a once-per-contract thing). One of the ways you can prove your age is with a credit card. But I imagine it’s a large deterrent because not many people want to call Vodafo…

But I imagine it’s a large deterrent because not many people want to call Vodafone and ask permission to look at pornography. True, and particularly galling when the content you want to look at is not porn but (say) the internet archive or opinion sites that weenies in the provider have deemed offensive.

I've had this happen when wanting to view US News Sites in the UK. Yes, they may well show photos of violence and wars. Sadly, this is still valid news.

But the verification process wanted my Driving License number, which I gave repeatedly, but which it never accepted.

I scrapped that mobile contract ("Three") as useless.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#68

Post by sofixa »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #55
Barrin92 wrote: post #5

For Facebook or TikTok it's a sensible move because they are social networks trying to connect natural persons. Not just child protection as mentioned in the article but ecommerce scams, misinformation, catfishing or botting would be cut down if you could verify that the online identity represents who it claims it does. It would be good though if there is some identity standard across platforms rather than the existi…

What you are suggesting wouldn't help improve those situations, and in fact will likely make them worse. Governments and companies have been historically bad at protecting information. Companies will see it as an opportunity, governments will abuse it and the user will end up just having more information online for people to use against them. So called misinformation will change in definition to only support governme…

That's a slippery slope argument if I've ever seen one.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#69

Post by ghostDancer »

iqanq wrote: post #50
viraptor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened in the EU? You don't need a credit card to access porn or Facebook in the EU.

You need a credit card to watch age-restricted videos on YouTube.

Sorry, which videos? I mean it really, I'm from EU and have never found one. To watch some videos I have to login but have never ever asked me for a credit card that I recall. I'd like to know.

Re: UK.gov to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok

#70

Post by toyg »

osivertsson wrote: post #47
d13 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve come to the realization I really should be using a VPN, for so many reasons. I really know nothing much them - any recommendations?

At this point one must assume that all traffic is monitored and stored, maybe it is or maybe it is not, but assume so. At least all metadata is stored for some time. Using a VPN moves the point where this occurs and may obfuscate some things, but also realize that many VPNs are probably in some form associated with nation-states and therefore makes their job easier.

It depends on what your threat model is.

For example, my VPN is based in Thailand. For various legal reasons, it's very unlikely anything obtained by a nation-state actor in Thailand will be used for trivial stuff like, say, enforcing copyright legislation against individual consumers. Defense lawyers / barristers would have a field day. If you are planning terrorist acts, on the other hand...

Post reply on HN