from the porn-just-wants-to-be-freeeee! dept.
Submitted via IRC for chromas
Porn block: UK to require age checks for adult content as of July 15
Porn sites serving UK users will soon be required to confirm the age of visitors before letting them access content, the British government said Wednesday. As of July 15, commercial providers of pornography will have to ensure that only those over the age of 18 are able to access adult content, to protect minors.
It'll be up to individual sites and services to choose how they carry out verification. Options include face-to-face verification in stores, which would let people buy a so-called "porn pass," or the use of a service like Mindgeek's AgeID system, which lets people upload scans of their passports or driving licenses to be verified by a third party.
Age checks were originally supposed to come into effect this spring as part of the Digital Economy Act 2017, but they were delayed while the government worked out the details of the new rules. The British Board of Film Classification will be in charge of ensuring that porn sites comply with the law. Those that fail to do so could be blocked.
"Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online," Margot James, UK minister for digital, said in a statement. "The introduction of mandatory age-verification is a world-first, and we've taken the time to balance privacy concerns with the need to protect children from inappropriate content."
Opponents of the new rules pointed out that they won't cover smaller sites or social networks, and can be circumvented by the use of VPNs. Others fear the systems used to verify age will be open to exploitation, and could result in people's privacy being violated and their browsing histories being circulated beyond their control.
"Having some age verification that is good and other systems that are bad is unfair and a scammer's paradise -- of the government's own making," Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said in a statement. "Data leaks could be disastrous. And they will be the government's own fault. The government needs to shape up and legislate for privacy before their own policy results in people being outed, careers destroyed or suicides being provoked."
Also at ZDNet
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:00PM (2 children)
Requirdefed? Is that a UK specific spelling, kind of like colour?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:08PM
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:08PM
No, it's just someone covfefing their phone.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:14PM
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in orgasm and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:22PM
Where do I send "my" passport to see my pron?
https://www.google.com/search?q=passport+image&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=U7HlLK_TSjJSfM%253A%252CjJfW_Gjrcd5CXM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQV7fNZgKCBnZytx6owDNLTNLIC_g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9_IPhoNrhAhXYpZ4KHYocAbsQ9QEwC3oECAcQGg#imgrc=LtsQDflPh9hBQM:&vet=1 [google.com]
(IOW, how the hell do they intend to match a user to an uploaded photo over the internet?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:36PM (1 child)
... only patronise services which will geoblock the UK. Shouldn't be too hard for a site to come up with versions for UK and rest of world while sharing the same database, kind of an AC/DC thing, just put a 6 at the end of one URL and a 9 on the other. They just have to not blow off either side too hard while still taking matters in hand so that nobody winds up in a rubber room. It's been my pleasure to discuss how to be able to give everyone an exciting climax.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:52PM
Porn sites don't need to do anything if they aren't based in the UK. They can just wait for the UK ISPs to block, and it's possible that won't even happen for smaller sites.
In the meantime, they can run scary banner ads linking to VPN services, and even get some referral money from doing that.
If they do want to come up with an alternate domain for UK visitors, they can do that too.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by progo on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:46PM (5 children)
So let me get this straight...
Commercial porn sites may still operate in UK but they must verify all users' ages, or else deny access. But the government that is demanding it isn't providing a means to perform the verification.
When GDPR came into effect, many American news outlets did a cost-benefit analysis and decided it made more business sense to deny access to EU readers (for mostly American stories) than to risk huge fines from the EU for violating a privacy law. For many of these outlets the decision still stands: Access denied if you're using an EU IP address.
UK just made free porn effectively illegal on the web.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:51PM
That was always the goal, though?
It was never intended to protect minors from the sheer horror of the human body.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday April 18 2019, @09:46PM
Did they?
To what parties do the consequences fall? That seems to be explicitly the porn providers. Free porn itself isn't illegal for a UK citizen to view, download, etc. Porn providers, specifically those in the UK, will have to make changes, but that is a very small percentage of the porn providers world wide. UK mobile phones may have these "adult" filters, but to my knowledge, any standard PC in the UK plus a Linux distro = Free Porn w/ no age verification or filters.
Sites that host pornography are not exclusively membership sites. There a LOT of landing sites that have indexes of porn that are basically advertisements for the membership sites. None of those sites outside of the UK fall under this law, and their behavior will not change. Almost certainly the idea was to start blocking half the damn Internet, or for the rest of the Internet to block the UK out of convenience.
Lastly, there "free" porn sites that don't fall under any of the other categories, and they're called Private Trackers, aka Pirate Sites. In this case, even public trackers like TPB are in the mix. While you can attempt to block TPB and others, that only causes an explosion of VPN business. These were already illegal, and a UK citizens participation in it is technically illegal. Has it made any difference whatsoever in the levels of piracy? Not much.
Not only is free porn still largely legal for UK citizens, it's still just as available. That will not change much, until the UK Government starts locking down individual pieces of hardware and makes custom computing illegal.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Friday April 19 2019, @12:17AM (2 children)
No they didn't, they just moved it all offshore. For this to have any effect at all, they would have to be able to enforce UK law on the rest of the world, and as everyone knows, only the US government can apply their laws to everyone else.
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 19 2019, @01:47PM (1 child)
They're supposed to leave E.U. To leave European Union. It should have happened by now. Hasn't happened, because they have a VERY WEAK & INEFFECTIVE leader. But when it happens -- if it happens -- we can talk about, possibly they can join U.S.A. The same way Virgin Islands joined. Because U.K. -- people don't know this -- is also an Island!!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:29PM
>when you are so drunk on winning you want to restart the revolution so you can win additional wins you didn't know you could.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:48PM
It's just gonna redirect people to sites that don't enforce the law at all. I'd call them unintended consequences, but these are tories, and it's without question that it's an intended consequence and they're gonna use reactions to their dumb laws an excuse to go on some kind of moral crusade to lock down more sites.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:57PM (5 children)
"Adult content is currently far too easy for children to access online"
Every adult human is a someone's child.
I hope they figured out age-verification with sufficient privacy and anonymity done correctly too.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday April 18 2019, @07:00PM
I hope nobody hacks the verification system and sexposes everybody who was dumb enough to use it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 18 2019, @08:19PM (3 children)
And while we're at it I want a pony /s
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @10:32PM
A pony? You dirty, dirty boy tangomargarine
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday April 19 2019, @12:19AM
Wouldn't you rather have a sheep instead? The wool gives you something to grip onto.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @02:50AM
I've gone and put a pony on Liverpool. Did you see that ludicrous display last night? What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early? You see the thing about arsenal is they always try and walk it in.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:59PM (2 children)
I know American conservatives like to distract their voting public from their stupidity in governance by engaging in a pointless puritanical effort to stamp out anybody enjoying sexual pleasure in anything other than the approved "cisgender heterosexual married couples only, man on top, she can't have any fun" method, but I'm surprised the UK Tories think that this will save them from "You tossers screwed up Brexit!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Thursday April 18 2019, @07:11PM (1 child)
This has been on the agenda since forever.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/05/digital_economy_bill_age_verification_smut_sites/ [theregister.co.uk]
Before Theresa May was known for being the UK's most ineffective Prime Minister, she was pushing Snooper's Charter, porn filters, anti Wi-Fi hotspot (terrorism!) legislation, etc. If anyone has a full history of UK or May's web missteps, plz post (hint: she was Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday April 19 2019, @11:17AM
Don't forget the Hostile Environment [wikipedia.org] and the Windrush Scandal [wikipedia.org]. She's a church-going Christian.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @09:27PM (1 child)
If a Moslem transvestite wants to watch some hot porn, how will they verify his age if he is wearing a burqa?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 18 2019, @10:17PM
That is an awfully specific scenario. Is there something you'd like to share with the class...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 18 2019, @09:33PM (2 children)
in other words on july 16 Westminster will be in flames and MP s will be hanged from lampposts by raging mobs of football/soccer hooligans?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday April 19 2019, @10:38AM (1 child)
Er, no. They're the raving fascist puritans. They call themselves the DFLA, They're friends with UKIP [theguardian.com] who have gone full 1930s Germany on the Muslims [theguardian.com].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 19 2019, @02:04PM
UKIP used to be great. Used to be. I really think the only Party that can save U.K. now is Brexit Party. Led by Nigel. Who won, very proudly, Times Briton of the Year. Very famous guy on many sides of the Atlantic. Many sides.
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Friday April 19 2019, @01:42AM (1 child)
I have a much better idea: just kick the children off the Internet.
The entire world does not have to be sanitised for children. If adults are interacting and someone happens to bring their children - the onus is on the parents to remove the children when the subject matter becomes too adult. Children need safe spaces where they can be themselves but so do adults!
This is one of the more stupid pieces of legislation of which I have heard. It will be utterly ineffectual. Any porn hosted in the UK will be moved offshore (depriving local service providers income!) and life will continue as normal - except for a small number of poor saps who get phished into sending their passports in to be "verified" and have their identity stolen.
Granted, porn can be a problem, but the Internet is not a children's playground. I am happy for children to visit but they need to be supervised. This legislation will do nothing to address the declared issue but it will have knock-on effects. It also makes the British Parliament look like a bunch of clueless fools.
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Friday April 19 2019, @01:46AM
The UK has heard your concerns and will now implement age verification for all Internet users. Thank you.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Friday April 19 2019, @01:45AM
UK needs their own version of the yellow vests. Blue briefs perhaps?
On the bright side, it was a good thing I preemptively downloaded all that stuff from UK-tickling and only-secretaries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @11:17AM
The Australian government requires 100 points of ID to register a phone sim card. This is to prevent the use of burner phones and the like. When I decided to join one of the smaller companies who have retail stores I found that they require you to scan photo ID, and two other ids or documents to prove identity and upload this scan to their internet server. They promise to delete it afterward.
When I rang then I got their call centre in England. Right.
If my identity is stolen I plan on suing the government over this.
Anyone with that scan of my ID documents can pretend to be me easily. Sure my identity is now somehow linked to that sim. How is this helping overall?