Online Safety Act

Sorry I dont disagree with most of what you said about the law.. but he has persistently offered no alternatives while saying this is **** iver and over but presented little to no evidence to actually back up his claims. Its literally everything thats wrong with modern society.

Its not that i dont see or care about the implications, but we arent reversing this whether people want to or not. Thats gone. But the idea that it doesn't protect a lot of kids, intentioned or not, is gibberish. We need to do better at it but i struggle to see how age verification to see content is true censorship. Anyone old enough can just verify their age.

 

Almost 2 million plastic straws were given out per day by McDonalds alone and ended up in landfill. That no longer happens, and 99.9% of people either use the paper one given or carry a renewable alternative. I actually support placccess for disabled people who need disposable plastic straws. If a few people get plastic straws by other means its a drop in the ocean in comparison. None of what you said makes the ban bad or unjustified. It just shows we need to do far more to improve plastic waste. Same as internet regulation.

Your analogy is counter to the point you were trying to make.

 

I used the word porn because i’m talking about people using dodgy sites as an alternative to verifying their age, as you well know. It’s absolutely happening whether you want to admit it or not. Maybe it’s just me but i don’t see that as a positive thing.

When there’s no strict guidelines on how to do age verification it is indeed censorship. People unable to get a credit card for whatever reason are now effectively censored from certain content because some sites use that as the only method of verification. I’m talking about credit card, not debit card, by the way.

Some sites (such as twitter) only have paying for premium as a way to verify your age. That’s censorship for anyone that doesn’t want to give elon musk money.

Other than that there’s other sites that require people to upload their documents to verify their identity. You can say “oh but you happily give your information to google who are governed by the same laws” - but that’s both not necessarily true and also not relevant. Google are governed by US laws, these verification companies are governed by the laws of whatever country they’re based in. None of them are subject to UK laws unless they’re UK based (which most of them are not).

But it’s also not relevant what laws they’re subject to. I can tell you for a fact that no matter what laws a company is subject to it absolutely doesn’t stop data leaks. At the end of the day when you give a company your data you’re trusting them with it. A multi billion dollar company like google has a lot more resources to protect against things like that than a small company who quickly spun up an age verification system to sell to websites.

As someone that’s worked in a fair amount of companies doing a lot of varied software work, I’m telling you i’m not trusting these companies with my personal information. Take that as you will, but there’s going to be a lot of stolen identities in the future.

 

Because, again, there is no alternative.

I’ve explained why multiple times. The internet is decentralised. Maybe i’m explaining it badly but the entire way the internet works is that it’s not controlled. That’s the entire purpose of it.

The only alternative is parents actually being parents and making sure the devices kids are using are locked down.

 

That’s just made up rubbish based on your opinion.

 

Several times. And I don't look at porn (that word again) or anything to do with terrorism or suicide or anything I would have thought would be illegal.

Also, on the Just Eat app there are several establishments that now require age verification to buy a spicy curry. I kid you not!

 

Think of the children. What if they see the word chicken breast on the menu.

Could scar them for life

 

I’m interested in how parental controls work if it’s impossible to prevent people from accessing certain content? I remember the big internet providers making it so that everyone who wanted to access adult content had to contact them and have a temporary charge against their card. Why isn’t something like that possible? So every device is locked down until someone verifies their age and then it can be used to access the content? It could still be locked down with additional controls if it is a shared device via PIN code. Or if not device specific, via internet providers and log ins required for shared services like free WiFi.

 

I’ll have to have a look later, can you name one to make it easier to find? I still honestly haven’t seen a single thing saying I can’t view it yet.

 

That’s not censorship, it’s capitalism. A private company charging people to view their content happens everywhere. Is it censorship to need a TV licence to watch the BBC? That’s been happening forever, before you could get the news online. What about having to pay for a newspaper to read the news? ‘Political censorship’ right there that’s been happening for centuries with no complaints.

 

Just the once here.

As noted in an earlier post. Just to access Reddit and a jokes subredit I often read.

It's a bit similar to our long standing jokes thread.

As it's labeled NSFW I had to submit a selfie/picture of my mush.

Access granted in a seconds. I guess I don't look young these days then lol

Other than that, I haven't come across anything else to verify my age

 

I didn't note them down but I will if I run into any again. I believe a couple were articles in education publications as I encountered them at work. But in each case it was when I'd conducted a search rather than a page or app I frequent regularly.

I can name you a restaurant on the Just Eat app that requires age verification for spicy dishes: Gate of India. Although I don't think that's anything to do with the online safety act, it's just sillyness.

 

It doesn't mean that companies aren't self-sensoring content though, which they are doing, content which isn't really harmful to children.

 

Sorry but this is absolutely incorrect. In order to process data of UK citizens data are bound by GDPR which is an extraterritorial law. Something I know because of my job as a data officer working for a UK organisation with numerous overseas partners.

 

So if you apply for a visa to visit say the USA, the US government is bound by GDPR?

 

Locking down devices is a lot different to locking down the internet or even an ISP. When you lock down a device for parental controls for example you set the DNS server which is what converts google.com to an IP address or any website. You can then block based on domain name etc.

It’s trivial to change the DNS server of a device though (yes, even for a child. literally a 30 second youtube video), even if devices or routers come with one set. But parental controls on a device can and should block it from being changed.

When you don’t control the DNS server, it makes blocking websites a lot more complicated because you have to block by the IP, not the domain. An IP address which can change regularly.

Locking down the device you can also control what apps are installed etc. The same way a work laptop or phone might stop installation of certain things.

This is what we should be educating parents in and making as easy as possible for them to do. Not trying to lock down the internet for everyone which is just not possible.

 

No. In that scenario you are voluntary providing data to a country outside the EU for their own scheme. Your data is processed under US law.

However, if the US government was collecting data from UK citizens online for something like age verification then the data would need to be processed in compliance with GDPR

 

Correct at a base level, but that doesn’t govern things like what their physical security looks like. It also doesn’t prevent data leaks, most of which come from human error/phishing attacks. You’re putting your trust in the company that they have proper policies for those things.

The UK government also doesn’t really have the power to fine foreign companies for breaching GDPR when they have no presence in the UK. So as far as i’m concerned it doesn’t actually matter. They can try and fine them, but they’re under no obligation to pay. Which is what happened to 4chan recently.

 

When it’s only happening in the UK and because of this law i’m considering it censorship.

You’re right it’s capitalism but it’s also this law that made it happen. They had to start blocking anything that could be considered adult content and decided to make money doing it.

 

Not "at base level". Just true.

You said they aren't subject to UK laws but they literally are. They collect small amounts of data which is immediately covered by GDPR.

What you said was false now you are changing angle. You keep sharing things which are not true then switching approach when called out. That and the sliding in fully subjective opinions to your technical knowledge does somewhat undermine your authority of the subject.

As for 4Chan they said no a day ago. We will have to wait and aee if there are consequences for them. Not that they relates to GDPR anyway.