Adult content - Age Verification system - April 2018

opethdisciple · 24 Nov 2017 at 19:47

Surprised we don't have a thread on this yet.

What are your thoughts on the new age verification system coming in April 2018 which will require age ID to visit adult content? I think it's also linked to your credit card! That's the crucial part.

Article

I think it's a terrible idea and this data will leak eventually in some sort of leak or hack. It's massive privacy intrusion as well.

I understand why they've done it but not sure this is the answer.

itchy · 24 Nov 2017 at 19:54

Use Tor problem solved.

Hades · 24 Nov 2017 at 19:55

It will only stop people legally allowed to view that content.

Rroff · 24 Nov 2017 at 19:59

Honestly I think it is going to end up going the way of prohibition type stuff leading to larger problems and actually do more harm than it sets out to try and prevent.

I would question what its actual goal is compared to what it ostensibly sets out to achieve.

antijoke · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:01

And yet these people are as kinky as they come and will no doubt be exempt from it.

Can’t have the normal folk getting their rocks off.

FishFluff · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:41

Minusorange · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:41

How are they going to police and enforce it ?

If a porn site is based in the States or Russia how is the UK going to force them to comply when it's out of their jurisdiction and also how will they prevent UK citizens from accessing if they can't enforce ?

And even if it does become enforceable surely it's just easily skipped over via a VPN ?

Not to mention what about more adult oriented social media sites like VK which is littered with porn and people posting porn to even twitter ?

I'm sure though the government will get their cut of the profits from this glorified porn tax which is likely the main motivation behind it, with the excuse being "protect the vulnerable" which funnily enough never offers any kind of protection

This restriction of things never works because curious minds want to know why it's restricted, how about providing better education on topics like porn & drugs to young minds instead of trying to hide it away from them for as long as possible making them want to have access to it to see what all the fuss is about in the first place.

Amp34 · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:49

One day they’ll realise how the internet actually works.

All I can see this doing is pushing UK people away from larger legitimate sites to other sites with perhaps more shady content.

That’s if people don’t just bypass it all by using a VPN or proxy freely available through google. Which is what all the under 18s will do anyway.

Alternatively we could just have a more open society and discuss sex and nudity like, well, much of the rest of the world.

Nate--IRL-- · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:49

I think it can be guaranteed that every 13 year old male will have this bypassed in the first 20mins of its introduction.

Nate

G-MAN2004 · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:50

I'm guessing a VPN would circumvent this easily. I'm not quite sure why anyone would browse the Internet without one tbh...

Mynight · 24 Nov 2017 at 20:51

It will go brilliantly I mean they stopped piracy right?

Waste of time and money that should be spent on better filtering technology. Age verification is always going to be easy to bypass if it's not then other sites that don't play ball will step in to take the place of those that do.

I fully support the idea of limiting content to adults no child should wonder across that(I imagine quite a few seek it) but it's another brain dead idea by those that don't think past the sound bite.

Angilion · 24 Nov 2017 at 21:38

It makes more sense as a step towards banning VPNs, so I think that's what it is.

It's clearly useless for its stated purpose of preventing UK citizens from seeing whatever an unelected and unaccountable body decides to classify as restricted(*), so that's not what it's for.

It might be for data gathering, i.e. everyone who signs up for it goes on a government list of undesirables to be targetted more closely, but I think it's part of the groundwork for banning VPNs:

Premise: This is to protect children.
Premise: VPNs circumvent this.

Conclusion: VPNs harm children.

Conclusion: VPNs must be banned in order to protect children.

They'll add some "protect against terrorism" lying in as well, of course. Whatever works.

* Obviously this won't only be porn. People don't create blanket censorship powers and not use them.

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 21:41

Given that ISPs are already required to provide content filtering, I don’t see what this is supposed to add.

asim18 · 24 Nov 2017 at 21:46

Mynight said:
It will go brilliantly I mean they stopped piracy right?

Haha exactly. I mean they managed to INCREASE piracy when they "banned" those torrent sites back in the day, because they pretty much had a hige advertisement campaign which would have cost absolute MILLIONS if the torrent sites paid for it, including advertisement campaigns for VPN providers. Having the names of 20 of the best torrent sites plastered on #1 top story on mass media for over 24 hours is the BEST advertisement contract such company could ever hope to secure! Along with phrases like "TEN BAZILLION people downloaded this movie for FREE without consequence!"

The exact same effect will happen with this porn charade. Kids are simply being bombarded with the KEYwords "PORN" "PORNHUB" "CELEB PORN TAPE" "Etc etc etc".

The problem from the government's side is that most pornstars don't pay their taxes.

Mynight · 24 Nov 2017 at 21:51

Does raise an interesting question (at least I think it's interesting) could filters be improved enough to combat it?

I mean site blocking on domain level is done.
Image/keyword recognition is already done to an extent.

Could wipe out professional porn by forcing them to submit their videos for hashing before making public.

Not really sure how you could stop amateur pornography.

Malevolence · 24 Nov 2017 at 22:34

When it comes to anything even remotely internet or IT related the dumb ***** in government simply don't have a clue. I mean, who the hell pays for porn anyway?

FishFluff · 24 Nov 2017 at 22:46

Angilion said:
I think it's part of the groundwork for banning VPNs

Even our government isn't that stupid. They can't ban VPNs without effectively banning people working from home.

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Nov 2017 at 22:48

It's like whack-a-mole. Shut down one avenue to get your fix and another 2 avenues will become available. Take piracy for example. When the courts made the big ISPs block pirate sites, there was a brief dip in pirate traffic, then pirate traffic was back to normal within days and ever since.

The crux of this: The Tories are Tories. They're backwards. E.g. use pen & paper for shopping lists instead of using Google Keep. They still visit their bank branch to pay their bills and write out cheques instead of using online banking. They've never done home shopping e.g. Tesco, and haven't used Just-Eat or Uber. For a taxi, they use the phone as... a phone - to actually RING the taxi firm.

dowie · 24 Nov 2017 at 22:58

opethdisciple said:
What are your thoughts on the new age verification system coming in April 2018 which will require age ID to visit adult content? I think it's also linked to your credit card! That's the crucial part.

dubious for the reasons you've mentioned

it would be better to mandate that anyone with an internet connection enforces filtering on that connection if any children use it... i.e. parents can already lock down internet access on their home router etc..