Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
The much-hyped Online Safety Bill, a hang-over from the Tory government that is possibly one of the most far-reaching pieces of internet legislation ever, came into force on Friday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0epennv98lo
I don't want to sound right-wing, but I'll admit that I'm not sure if I agree with this legislation.
I completely get the sentiment behind it. Very few people would disagree that current legislation makes the internet too unrestricted for children and teenagers; some of the statistics (for example, 50% of 13-year-olds have seen "hardcore, misogynistic pornography") are quite sobering. Something definitely needs to change.
However, I'm not sure that this legislation is the answer, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, I have my concerns about the rather blunt way in which the legislation seemingly forces any site with "user-generated content" to abide by the very draconian requirements. Yes, the likes of Facebook and X come to mind, but sites like Wikipedia are also getting pulled into this and are threatening to restrict their service in the UK, and smaller sites like TS are also covered by the legislation. I fear that the blunt way in which this legislation has been implemented could potentially make many discussion boards shut up shop or pair back their services. Forums like TS have been an absolutely brilliant thing for me, and I wouldn't want other enthusiasts of anything to miss out on such a brilliant thing because of some ham-fisted legislation that reached too far.
Secondly, I also have my concerns about the idea of mandatory age verification on adult sites. It's a sound idea on paper; it's adult content, so people should be verified like they are to buy beer. But I don't think it's quite that simple in practice. Age verification on a website is much more complex and introduces many more minefields than age verification in a shop, nightclub or similar in-person environment. In the in-person environment, you flash your driving licence, passport or whatever at the shop assistant, and they likely forget your information almost as soon as you've made your purchase or obtained entry to your business. But the online world does not forget that easily. Any age verification process on a website would store the information given for verification in some capacity, likely in some kind of database. Now some will say "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"... but I'm not sure I agree. Data breaches are a legitimate threat for any database, and while pornography is legal and many adults consume it, I'm quite sure that most, if not all, users of adult sites would not want their usage information from these sites to be paired to personally identifiable information and leaked in a data breach. A database of age verification information that would almost definitely be identifiable paired with usage information from adult sites sounds like it's asking for a ransomware or sextortion attack... budding cyber criminals will absolutely love that! And frankly, I think there are also questions to be asked about privacy; there's a definite argument that this would strongly impede many people's privacy even before you take the data breach potential into account.
So for the reasons given, I'm definitely unsure on whether I agree with this legislation. I don't deny that the intention is noble, and I agree with the sentiment, but I think it's too far-reaching and has privacy implications, and I'm not sure it's the answer to this issue. I wonder if the answer should lie in legislation more specific to children and teenagers and/or larger social media sites, perhaps with regard to parental controls.
What does anybody else think?
I don't want to sound right-wing, but I'll admit that I'm not sure if I agree with this legislation.
I completely get the sentiment behind it. Very few people would disagree that current legislation makes the internet too unrestricted for children and teenagers; some of the statistics (for example, 50% of 13-year-olds have seen "hardcore, misogynistic pornography") are quite sobering. Something definitely needs to change.
However, I'm not sure that this legislation is the answer, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, I have my concerns about the rather blunt way in which the legislation seemingly forces any site with "user-generated content" to abide by the very draconian requirements. Yes, the likes of Facebook and X come to mind, but sites like Wikipedia are also getting pulled into this and are threatening to restrict their service in the UK, and smaller sites like TS are also covered by the legislation. I fear that the blunt way in which this legislation has been implemented could potentially make many discussion boards shut up shop or pair back their services. Forums like TS have been an absolutely brilliant thing for me, and I wouldn't want other enthusiasts of anything to miss out on such a brilliant thing because of some ham-fisted legislation that reached too far.
Secondly, I also have my concerns about the idea of mandatory age verification on adult sites. It's a sound idea on paper; it's adult content, so people should be verified like they are to buy beer. But I don't think it's quite that simple in practice. Age verification on a website is much more complex and introduces many more minefields than age verification in a shop, nightclub or similar in-person environment. In the in-person environment, you flash your driving licence, passport or whatever at the shop assistant, and they likely forget your information almost as soon as you've made your purchase or obtained entry to your business. But the online world does not forget that easily. Any age verification process on a website would store the information given for verification in some capacity, likely in some kind of database. Now some will say "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"... but I'm not sure I agree. Data breaches are a legitimate threat for any database, and while pornography is legal and many adults consume it, I'm quite sure that most, if not all, users of adult sites would not want their usage information from these sites to be paired to personally identifiable information and leaked in a data breach. A database of age verification information that would almost definitely be identifiable paired with usage information from adult sites sounds like it's asking for a ransomware or sextortion attack... budding cyber criminals will absolutely love that! And frankly, I think there are also questions to be asked about privacy; there's a definite argument that this would strongly impede many people's privacy even before you take the data breach potential into account.
So for the reasons given, I'm definitely unsure on whether I agree with this legislation. I don't deny that the intention is noble, and I agree with the sentiment, but I think it's too far-reaching and has privacy implications, and I'm not sure it's the answer to this issue. I wonder if the answer should lie in legislation more specific to children and teenagers and/or larger social media sites, perhaps with regard to parental controls.
What does anybody else think?
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