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UK Politics General Discussion

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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?
 
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People always find a way to get smut. And it doesn't surprise me that people don't want to give these websites identifying personal information (particularly credit cards for example) that will make them a real target for hackers. Plus of course relies on the 3rd party companies bought in for the "age confirmation" software to not be selling that data on anyway.

The other effect is that it drives people onto more dangerous areas of the Internet.

The Act has also had some unfortunate not thought about side effects on a few forums as well.

However seems like VPNs will be next since they became VERY popular since this came into fruition. Which of course would affect many Working From Home because what do you use to connect to the central work system?
 
How the government can pass a law that over-reaches into the privacy of its citizens... just claim it's "protecting children". You wouldn't be against that would you?

iu
 
It's a stupid piece of legislation, and only a matter of time before age verification services get hacked. Plenty of ways around it, including the opportunity for "less than honest" "free" VPN services to fill the gap. It's as stupid as suggesting putting backdoors in encryption, or even as some politicians have suggested "banning encryption".

My son is 18, but regardless of age I suggest he use a paid VPN to circumvent such checks to surf dodgy material anonymously. Perhaps instead we can teach children to report instances of stumbling across stuff to their parents, and for parents to educate children how to use the internet safely. Weirdly, I have never stumbled across smut on the internet *accidentally*
 
It's as stupid as suggesting putting backdoors in encryption, or even as some politicians have suggested "banning encryption".
You see, it’s stuff like this that makes me have doubts about the level of technological literacy of those who created the legislation. They should really have domain experts with some level of technological literacy involved in creating technology legislation, but the execution of this bill gives me doubts about whether any domain experts were actually consulted.

I saw the reference to putting back doors in encryption… they somehow thought that this would be some kind of magical back door that would only allow government officials through and wouldn’t let cyber criminals through. That isn’t how encryption works, unfortunately! You can’t let people in without undermining the entire principle! The head of the NCSC (rightly) accused the government of “magical thinking” on this.

I’m slightly reassured by the fact that others on here seem to be concerned by the bill. I myself have my concerns about it and am not sure I support it; I think it’s noble in intention, but poorly executed and perhaps overly authoritarian for my liking. But I was slightly afraid to say that on a site that tends to lean left-wing politically, seeing as the only party that appears to openly oppose the bill is Reform UK. The left wingers are seemingly all for it!

I don’t agree with Nigel Farage on very much, but I think I can see his point on this subject…
 
You only have to look at what happened this week with that "Tea" app, to realise why only an idiot would upload their ID, or even a face scan, to any site.
 
It's an app that lets women "rate" men. They all had to upload ID and face scans to prove they were "women".
Turns out the server didn't even have a basic password on it. Technically it wasn't even a "hack", it was "walking through an open door". Now every single member has been doxxed.
 
It's an app that lets women "rate" men. They all had to upload ID and face scans to prove they were "women".
Turns out the server didn't even have a basic password on it. Technically it wasn't even a "hack", it was "walking through an open door". Now every single member has been doxxed.
You see, this is exactly why I think the age verification aspect of the bill is a large scale cyber attack waiting to happen!

What cyber criminal wouldn’t love a database filled with ID and/or face scans linked with pornography usage information that most people will want to be kept private? A ransomware or sextortion attack practically creates itself!

You’d like to think that the databases would be protected against cyber attack, but seeing as even big, reputable sites have fallen victim to data breaches because of very preventable gaps in their cyber security, do you really trust some of the dodgier porn sites and/or age verification providers to secure their databases adequately?

I will not be at all surprised if we hear about some sort of big data breach soon revolving around one of these age verification features.
 
I've been able to find ONE "adult" site that isn't blocked.
..... It's the worst kind of dodgy Russian site that I will say no more about.
Goes without saying I'mma get myself a VPN ASAP.
 
I can recommend Nord VPN. Been using it for around 6 years or so. Mainly for torrenting and the occasional dodgy football link when there is no other option. The government have just created another use for it this past week with this age verification thing, if I was ever to go on such websites (I tried it out for research purposes yesterday and it worked fine) :sweatsmile:

You can usually get a good deal for a 2 year subscription and I believe it's always been rated amongst the best/safest.
 
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