Porn Viewers Will Have to Prove Age as Online Law Passes in UK

[Megalith]

Come April, residents in the UK will have to pass an age verification check in order to access porn sites. There isn’t a standard process in place yet, but many predict they’ll have to give up their banking details, or even install software on their phone or computer. Experts warn this could become an avenue for blackmail, as ministers and celebrities could have their porn histories hacked.

"The government's own impact assessment recognizes that it is not guaranteed to succeed, and I suspect we will see an increase in advertising from VPN providers in the near future." VPNs or virtual private networks are a privacy technology which allows users to tunnel their internet communications through a third party. This would enable users in the UK to avoid any censorship requirements imposed by sites on users connecting from in the country.

 

[Tsumi]

Blatant invasion of privacy.

 

[SeymourGore]

This might be the beginning of a resurgence for B&M video rental stores.

 

[Patton187]

UKSSR.

 

[Dodge245]

Oh ffs, as a UK resident there is no way in hell I would give any card details to any porn site there not exactly trustworthy sites...

VPN companies I'm sure are going to love this, and I'm positive that anyone that would use a porn site will be pushed towards dodgier sites that probably don't care about the UK legal system, which creates further issues.

 

[Cyraxx]

lol UK.Sometimes I think we here in the US are the only ones going back in time and shoving our heads up our ass. Then countries like UK yell "We're here too!"

I hear when you pirate porn they don't ask for your age.... I bet porn sites are going to be pissed off that ye ol' Britains can't play with their willy freely.

 

[lostinseganet]

Maybe dedicated bittorrent hardware will see an increase in sales?

 

[Youn]

The "I'm 18, proceed" button isn't working?

I remember thinking the FBI might suddenly knock on my door if I pressed that button... that was the scariest time on the web, saw some horrible stuff back then, not even on purpose, like decapitation, melted faces, and sick stuff like that... it's good that's it's more difficult nowadays, as a kid that kinda messed me up... I just think the best way is for parents do a better job and understand how to secure a router and at least implement some sorta community-based whitelist for child safety

 

[Cyraxx]

The "I'm 18, proceed" button isn't working?

I remember thinking the FBI might suddenly knock on my door if I pressed that button... that was the scariest time on the web, saw some horrible stuff back then, not even on purpose, like decapitation, melted faces, and sick stuff like that... it's good that's it's more difficult nowadays, as a kid that kinda messed me up... I just think the best way is for parents do a better job and understand how to secure a router and at least implement some sorta community-based whitelist for child safety

Yeap, plus - as we all know - masturbation is evil. If you're not 18, you're basically making worships to the devil.

You can also severely hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing.... That's why there is an age restriction, you know?

 

[glutto]

Papers, please.

 

[ecuador]

Oh crap. I am currently in the UK and while you might suspect I watch porn now and then, I had plausible deniability until now.
The only age verification that is not invasive is Al Lowe's age checking trivia from the original Leisure Suit Larry.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

When the conservatives and the vagithugs get together to censor porn we're fucked.

 

[Master_shake_]

facism at work.

remember when they fought against it?

Oh ffs, as a UK resident there is no way in hell I would give any card details to any porn site there not exactly trustworthy sites...

VPN companies I'm sure are going to love this, and I'm positive that anyone that would use a porn site will be pushed towards dodgier sites that probably don't care about the UK legal system, which creates further issues.

oi mate!

you got a loicence for that VPN?

 

[GNUse_the_force]

When the conservatives and the vagithugs get together to censor porn we're fucked.

afaik the opposition parties support the same thing. it's nothing to do with left or right.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

afaik the opposition parties support the same thing. it's nothing to do with left or right.

It's always been a goal for the "conservatives", when the "liberals" are on board the majority of us get fucked.

Hard.

I'm not much part of the school that liberal and conservative are particularly binary, every intelligent human being has more than one conflicting opinion about any single topic.

 

[GNUse_the_force]

It's always been a goal for the "conservatives", when the "liberals" are on board the majority of us get fucked.

Hard.

I'm not much part of the school that liberal and conservative are particularly binary, every intelligent human being has more than one conflicting opinion about any single topic.

Conservatives in the UK are different to those in the US (the US is much more conservative in many ways and hyper liberal in other ways) and pretty much the story goes for each country and how they differ. I remember reading how teachers were catching students showing nasty pr0N images and video's in the playgrounds on their phones.. will this stop that ? i don't know, sadly you can't rely on parenting

The internet used to be for adults and nerds. Now it is for everyone from every culture and every age.

 

[HAL_404]

Experts warn this could become an avenue for blackmail, as ministers and celebrities could have their porn histories hacked

LOL

I remember reading how teachers were catching students showing nasty pr0N images and video's in the playgrounds on their phones.. will this stop that ?

yea, about as much as they were able to stop MP3 theft

 

[Deleted member 204526]

Each side of the political spectrum has used the rallying cry of "It's for the children!" to attack our freedoms.

 

[Delicieuxz]

And the government will have data on everything people watch.

Even though there is no definitive 'Western' country, and each Western country has its own characteristics, I've long felt that the UK doesn't share some cornerstone freedom values that are taken as granted as being Western values by the rest of Western countries. For examples, the UK is a police state with cameras on every corner in the cities, a tightly government-controlled and manipulated news media (which the UK is planning to do in the US too, BTW), social policies that are killing crazy numbers of UK citizens, arbitrarily medieval-like rules against things like which types of porn are allowed to be watched (female ejaculation is a taboo). Some UK policies give me an impression similar to Saudi Arabia not letting women show their faces in public, or to other rules that are often thought of as being from strangely and arbitrarily oppressive cultures, often from history and not the present day.

Come April, residents in the UK will have to pass an age verification check in order to access porn sites. There isn’t a standard process in place yet, but many predict they’ll have to give up their banking details, or even install software on their phone or computer. Experts warn this could become an avenue for blackmail, as ministers and celebrities could have their porn histories hacked.

That's not a 'could'. It is entirely predictable that it's a matter of 'how soon', rather than 'if,' before watch information is hacked, or deliberately leaked by the government or one of its workers to create PR problems for someone.

 

[Jagger100]

When the conservatives and the vagithugs get together to censor porn we're fucked.

If conservatives who cared about this were this effective at all in these matters you wouldn't have had porn in the 80's & 2000's at all.

 

[Tsumi]

And the government will have data on everything people watch.

Even though there is no definitive 'Western' country, and each Western country has its own characteristics, I've long felt that the UK doesn't share some cornerstone freedom values that are taken as granted as being Western values by the rest of Western countries. For examples, the UK is a police state with cameras on every corner in the cities, a tightly government-controlled and manipulated news media (which the UK is planning to do in the US too, BTW), social policies that are killing crazy numbers of UK citizens, arbitrarily medieval-like rules against things like which types of porn are allowed to be watched (female ejaculation is a taboo). Some UK policies give me an impression similar to Saudi Arabia not letting women show their faces in public, or other rules that are often thought of as being from strangely and arbitrarily oppressive cultures, often from history and not the present day.



That's not a 'could'. It is entirely predictable that it's a matter of 'how soon', rather than 'if' before watch information is hacked, or deliberately leaked by the government or one of of its workers, to create PR problems for someone.

My history might be a bit rusty, but I think it's due to the fact that the UK did not go through a massive civil war, experienced no direct invasion during the two world wars, and didn't come out as a loser in the world wars. They had no major event that greatly shifted their way of thinking.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

Conservatives in the UK are different to those in the US (the US is much more conservative in many ways and hyper liberal in other ways) and pretty much the story goes for each country and how they differ. I remember reading how teachers were catching students showing nasty pr0N images and video's in the playgrounds on their phones.. will this stop that ? i don't know, sadly you can't rely on parenting

The internet used to be for adults and nerds. Now it is for everyone from every culture and every age.

Man, the internet is for pr0nz, who the hell actually gets porn from genuine porn sites? This will affect nothing immediately, this is part of the grand plan to make it less profitable to actually make porn. Much like Bush did in the US back in 2007, this is about the long game to exterminate dirty thoughts by going after the money. By going after financial institutions he bypassed the constitution to attack sinful thoughts, the deal still stands and it successfully hit criminals right where it hurts, stamping out lots and lots of legit porn was just a happy bonus! The deal did successfully eliminate human trafficking, snuff, kiddie porn, bestiality, and the online drug trade.

Oh wait, no it didn't it's really only hurt legitimate producers.

If conservatives who cared about this were this effective at all in these matters you wouldn't have had porn in the 80's & 2000's at all.

"Conservative government passes conservative law, liberals to blame." Brilliant! What a spin!

 

[naib]

My history might be a bit rusty, but I think it's due to the fact that the UK did not go through a massive civil war, experienced no direct invasion during the two world wars, and didn't come out as a loser in the world wars. They had no major event that greatly shifted their way of thinking.

Wow... for starters there were a number of wars of succession ( Battle of Hastings, War of the Roses). A number of attempted invasions ( Spanish armada for one, where the French did actually land on the Isle of White) as well as actual invasions ( Battle of Fishguard...). Then there was the main civil war between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians where the Parliamentarians won, Cromwell became the Lord Protectorate and also ordered the execution of King Charles I. Having to deal with Napoleon

"no direct invasion" during WW2? Britain was bombed the fuck out of by the Luftwaffe, V1 and V2 bombs. So while no boots on the ground, it was flattened for the most part.

The level of ignorance is shocking

 

[Dead Parrot]

Unsure how software on a device ensures that the current operator of the device is of the proper age to view porn. Kids still use parent's devices to order crap despite parental lockouts designed to prevent unwanted ordering. This looks like yet another "Think of the Children" excuse to add more tracking software to devices.

 

[Tsumi]

Wow... for starters there were a number of wars of succession ( Battle of Hastings, War of the Roses). A number of attempted invasions ( Spanish armada) Then there was the main civil war between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians where the Parliamentarians won, Cromwell became the Lord Protectorate and also ordered the execution of King Charles I. Having to deal with Napoleon

"no direct invasion" during WW2? Britain was bombed the fuck out of by the Luftwaffe, V1 and V2 bombs. So while no boots on the ground, it was flattened for the most part.

The level of ignorance is shocking

Was referring to late 1800s and later. And no, getting bombed to hell does not equate to an invasion. Being forced to live under an outsider's rule changes things. Britain did not experience a hostile takeover of any sort. During the same time period, France got taken over by the Germans twice, the Germans got ruled by outside nations twice, Poland was overrun, etc. Britain's modern history is unique, as well as America's. Although, France isn't doing much better either, but what is happening in France may be an indication of what might happen in Germany.

 

[naib]

Was referring to late 1800s and later. And no, getting bombed to hell does not equate to an invasion. Being forced to live under an outsider's rule changes things. Britain did not experience a hostile takeover of any sort. During the same time period, France got taken over by the Germans twice, the Germans got ruled by outside nations twice, Poland was overrun, etc. Britain's modern history is unique, as well as America's. Although, France isn't doing much better either, but what is happening in France may be an indication of what might happen in Germany.

Ohhh so "history" is now late 1800... Both world wars significantly shaped the UK, the people of UK and the politics of the UK so your statement that, and I quote

They had no major event that greatly shifted their way of thinking.

is disgustingly ignorant.

The establishment wanted to appease Hitler, When Churchill got voted in the entire establishment wanted to still follow Chamberlins way of thinking. It was the British people that got behind Churchill to take the fight to the mainland that got them through the Battle of Britain.

You need to go read some history books and not just on UK because if that is your view of British history and how "they never got shaped" then wow... just wow...


This entire "think of the children" that resulted in this law (eventually) passing is down to the Mary Whitehouse mentality and how this one individual over hte course of about 60 years pretty much shaped, or more to the point stopped certain things appearing in media. Her views can only be described as censorship, but they found a voice and people backed it and THIS shaped this particular law

 

[Tsumi]

Ohhh so "history" is now late 1800... Both world wars significantly shaped the UK, the people of UK and the politics of the UK so your statement that, and I quote
is disgustingly ignorant.

The establishment wanted to appease Hitler, When Churchill got voted in the entire establishment wanted to still follow Chamberlins way of thinking. It was the British people that got behind Churchill to take the fight to the mainland that got them through the Battle of Britain.

You need to go read some history books and not just on UK because if that is your view of British history and how "they never got shaped" then wow... just wow...

Internally shaped by a relatively "peaceful" democratic process due to outside threat is vastly different from forced complete government resets is what I'm trying to say. That's why America and the UK tend to have different ideals than the rest of the EU. Not to mention both are relatively isolated from the EU, physically speaking.