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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 10 2018, @11:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the your-porn-is-showing dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Enforcing age verification checks for online porn sites could be detrimental to smaller ISPs and significantly increase online fraud, the government has admitted.

The measures, which are due to come into force in May, will require UK residents to prove they are 18 or over in order to get access to porn sites.

[...] And the one for age verification (PDF) – slipped out over the Christmas break – is a doozy, reeling off a list covering concerns about privacy, online fraud and reputational damage to the government.

The document also set out the costs of the new measures, which includes a cost to the public purse of between £1m and £7.9m for the creation of the regulator.

Meanwhile, the estimated cost to large ISPs of blocking sites – on the assumption that this would be for between 1 and 50 sites a year on a DNS level – is in the range of £100,000 to £500,000, which they said would cover a system update to include the BBFC's chosen porn sites.

These providers told government it was likely they would be able to absorb ongoing operational costs, probably because many already have blocking systems.

But this isn't true for all providers, as Neil Brown, tech lawyer at decoded:Legal, pointed out: "If every ISP needs to block non-compliant sites, that will impact smaller ISPs, especially if they don't already have a blocking system in place."

The government acknowledges this risk in the impact assessment, saying that the requirement "could have a negative impact on smaller ISPs with a much smaller workforce and we will need to carefully consider the impact on them".

[...] The security measures of the age verification providers has also been questioned – especially as the frontrunner at the moment, AgeID, is produced by mega-porn-corp MindGeek, whose companies don't have a great reputation for security.

"It would be ironic if a mass exposure of people's porn proclivities... is what teaches the public about the importance of online privacy and security," said Jackman.

Faced with all of this, perhaps it's not surprising that the government also lists as a potential risk that people simply stop using online porn at all.

But, hey, perhaps that's what the government wants...®


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Wootery on Wednesday January 10 2018, @12:07PM (7 children)

    by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @12:07PM (#620439)

    How is this 'age check' idea meant to work, then?

    Also, disturbing paragraph from TFA:

    They are also yet to set out an appeals process ISPs can use if they believe they’ve been asked to do something that isn't proportionate.

    Great. Because as we know, western governments would never expand their blacklists to cover, say, politically-charged websites. [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @12:21PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @12:21PM (#620442)

      So that's what you wish to know, is it? That's easy, because I'm the Assteller. I can see the future of your ass.

      You see a toy clown with red poofy hair, a red ball-like nose, and white skin, about the size of an adult male's hand. You ask him if you can be friends, and he answers in the affirmative. You play games together until you have to leave, and then say goodbye to your new friend. The clown smiles ominously as you leave the room.

      Several minutes after parting ways with the toy clown, you hear a voice say "I wanna go... you know where!" Suddenly, you feel as if something is floating between your snapcheeks and is directly in front of your asshole. You realize instantly that it's the toy clown, and have an unsettling premonition that something terrible is about to happen. You sense that the clown has interlocked the fingers from both of his hands together, but you still don't know what he's about to do. Then you feel it. The tickle. It's an excruciating level of tickle, the likes of which cannot even be properly described.

      You scream and you scream and you scream, but the tickle does not stop. The clown is whamming your asshole with his hands! And he didn't just wham it once, but three whole times! And you know that he's about to wham every single molecule of your ass until nothing remains! He whams and he whams and he whams, all the while laughing at your suffering...

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Wootery on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:23PM

        by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:23PM (#620463)

        Oh come on. I'd hardly call last night 'the future'.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:39PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:39PM (#620490)

      Well they just want a general mechanism in place so they can restrict content that is determined Haram.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:53PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:53PM (#620543)

        Start blocking the stuff offensive to Good Christians, and you'll drift into blocking stuff offensive to Good Muslims?
        That sounds logical.

        Apple is ahead in that market, since their animoji already hides women's faces. (one day, maybe, I'll get the point of a video call where the video is just CGI)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:03PM (#620667)

        Yes, many porn videos involve a bunch of girls having sex with one guy, or the other way around. What's your point?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:54PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:54PM (#620493)

      OK here's how it will work.

      1. Someone who went to Eton then Oxford who knows a minister or two will collect $1m to $7.8m
      2. ???
      3. Profit... oh wait, we already did that in step 1. No matter, we do it again: profit.

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:13PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:13PM (#620574) Journal

        3. Profit... oh wait, we already did that in step 1. No matter, we do it again: profit.

        (for VPN companies)

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by WizardFusion on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:34PM (8 children)

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:34PM (#620454) Journal

    this would be for between 1 and 50 sites a year on a DNS level

    So using OpenDNS, Quad9, Google, or any one of over 10 other public DNS services will make all this irreverent.?!

    https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062 [lifewire.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:45PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:45PM (#620456)

      Shhh - don't let them know about the hosts file.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:21PM (#620503)

        They can have my host files after they pry them from their cold, dead, hands. Host files are so damn useful, we are using them to coutner the demise of gamespy network in old games so we can continue have multiplayer!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:19PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @04:19PM (#620500)

      That there is a workaround is not an issue. It will only be an issue if people use the workaround.

      People are dumb and lazy as a group, so they are unlikely to do so unless sufficiently motivated (like by a hard-on).

      If workaround is used by a decent percentage, there will be more shortsighted legislation, where the computing providers instead of DNS will have to ensure the content is being age-checked (or whatever they call it). Yes I guarantee you that some dumb shit like that would happen, even though it would make zero sense and would be impossible for most companies to enforce/implement. Because if people are dumb and lazy as a group, politicians... well... I just don't have the energy to describe their short-comings.

      Also the way laws are enacted in UK reminds me of a high school debate team mixed with drama club. A total shit-show all around.

      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:11PM (4 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:11PM (#620523)

        Also the way laws are enacted in UK reminds me of a high school debate team mixed with drama club.

        Meanwhile, in the US we've replaced the high school debate team with the cheerleading squad. Sometimes literally - George W Bush, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, and Franklin Roosevelt were all cheerleaders prior to becoming president.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:30PM (3 children)

          by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:30PM (#620637) Journal

          What about Oprah?

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
          • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:50PM (2 children)

            by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:50PM (#620654)

            What about Oprah? Despite some idiots in the press listing her as a prospective presidential candidate, she's not a politician unless she decides to run for something.

            And this is just one guy's opinion, but I thought we would have learned by now that having somebody with zero experience in government in charge of government does not yield good results. It's sort of like what happens if you hire a CEO who knows absolutely nothing about the product they're selling.

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:01PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:01PM (#620516)

    Whenever I think the US is turning into a nanny state (which it is!), I look at the UK and see that it could be worse.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:06PM (#620519)

      BTW, Australians are big pussies too.
      Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin my ass.
      They enact laws more suited to scared suburbanites.

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