This blog post was co-written by Dr. Monica Horten, and is also available on the Open Rights Group website.Under new age verification rules in the UK’s massive Online Safety Bill, all internet platforms with UK users will have to stop minors from accessing ‘harmful’ content, as defined by the UK...
That headline needs a massive IF statement
IF it passed in its current state, which is highly doubtful.
The govt has already U-turned on breaking encryption. Making everyone share their biometric data to prove age is a privacy nightmare, and probably breaks existing laws
If it passed as is, hosting providers would just add a check box to allow or block access from UK IP addresses. Overnight, most of the Internet would stop working for UK residents.
Is a distinct possibility.
Even now I come across US sites which don’t work because they don’t want to have the whole GDPR compliance for EU members, which is usually overcome by a simple VPN to Canada/USA.
Funny thing about this is that the very people this is supposed to protect are probably far more tech savvy than the dinosaurs writing the legislation.
Torrent sites are blocked in UK by most isps , does it stop torrenting? No. And this wont work either it will just restrict the internet for the majority to “protect” the minority.
Except, if I understand correctly they haven’t u-turned. They aren’t removing the language re encryption, just acknowledging that it isn’t enforceable. Yet.