UK Proposes Mandatory Age Verification For Porn Sites (mirror.co.uk) 146
A proposed bill read in the House of Commons, "suggests that by next year websites will require visitors to prove they are of legal age before entering..." reports the Mirror. Britain's prime minister "says none of Britain's top 10 porn sites -- which account for 52% of all views -- have a 'robust' process to verify users' age," citing figures that 10% of the site's viewers are below the age of 18. The Independent adds that "the issue has alarmed privacy campaigners, since it could mean having to register a credit card with a porn website."
U.K. lawyer Neil Brown contacted Slashdot with more on the age-verification requirement:
Sites which failed to do so could face fines of up to 250,000 pounds or 5% of annual turnover. Their URLs could also be given to ISPs and payment processing providers, to consider voluntary blocking/service suspension, although no mandatory blocking regime is planned currently.
This is the same bill that proposes jail terms up to 10 years for those found guilty of copyright infringement. According to the article, one 2013 study found that 7% of the world's porn was hosted in the UK, with 60% in America and 26% in the Netherlands.
This is the same bill that proposes jail terms up to 10 years for those found guilty of copyright infringement. According to the article, one 2013 study found that 7% of the world's porn was hosted in the UK, with 60% in America and 26% in the Netherlands.
Sinking Ship (Score:5, Insightful)
Great, another reason for businesses to abandon the sinking ship that is the UK economy.
Re:Sinking Ship (Score:5, Funny)
The rest of the UK is pretty conventional in it's choice if porn sites.
I thought y'all just stood around watching people fucking in car parks.
Crap, I just thought of another one (Score:2)
"Yeah, it's all fish fingers and custard"
Re: (Score:2)
That's the southern part of the UK. Do you know why Scotsmen wear Kilts? So the sheep can't hear a zipper....
Re: Sinking Ship (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Great, another reason for businesses to abandon the sinking ship that is the UK economy.
Keep it up! I was a starving student the last time the USD was way up on the UKP and I'd like to go see the UK.
Overrated? Kind of like the UKP (Score:2)
Thanks, I'll be here forever. Try the veal.
Re: (Score:2)
Brinternexit.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, before you know it they'll have another referendum, saying that disconnecting the internet will keep the foreigners out and save 100 billion pounds that will go straight to the NHS.
So,basically the verification bill will be useless (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless I'm missing something, how exactly do they plan to enforce this for overseas sites?
Or is this going to end up with some braindead ISP filter saying: "I see you're trying to access a porn site, I've logged that for you, now confirm who you are so I can log that too (under the guise of letting you have access once verified)"
Privacy invasion, much.
It's the job of the parents to control access to the internet from their house, not the state. If the state has to do this, then perhaps the parents should be held more responsible?
Re:So,basically the verification bill will be usel (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless I'm missing something, how exactly do they plan to enforce this for overseas sites?
Or is this going to end up with some braindead ISP filter saying: "I see you're trying to access a porn site, I've logged that for you, now confirm who you are so I can log that too (under the guise of letting you have access once verified)"
Privacy invasion, much.
It's the job of the parents to control access to the internet from their house, not the state. If the state has to do this, then perhaps the parents should be held more responsible?
I find it amusing how conservatives, who are usually the most energetic at raging against regulations and the mommy state, are the most eager to impose mountains of regulations, draconian censorship and generally the mommy state on the public in order to regulate other people's sexual behaviour. In fact it is downright creepy how obsessed they are over who other people might be having sex with in the privacy of their bedrooms and how they are doing it, or in this case what they are using their laptops or tablet computers and tissue dispensers for in the privacy of their bedrooms.
Re:So,basically the verification bill will be usel (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, where's the verification bill requiring that car companies prove people have a driver's licence before operating their vehicles? One of these leads to wanking, the other leads to death....
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, where's the verification bill requiring that car companies prove people have a driver's licence before operating their vehicles? One of these leads to wanking, the other leads to death....
I've yet to see a dealer not demand to see your license, and make a copy of it, before letting you get into a car.
Also your insurance, the last few I've got have checked that too, and told me I needed to check with the insurance company.
And I think, but I'm not sure, but they also had to tell me to go register my vehicle.
Re: (Score:2)
I've yet to see a dealer not demand to see your license, and make a copy of it, before letting you get into a car.
Also your insurance, the last few I've got have checked that too, and told me I needed to check with the insurance company.
And I think, but I'm not sure, but they also had to tell me to go register my vehicle.
License, yes. Insurance, you can just call your insurance company while you're there and tell them you've done it and they go "okay!" Registration, yes, and they usually file it for you.
Re: (Score:2)
The dealer yes, how is he the car company? The ISP knows you're an adult, they have a signed contract with you, like the dealer does. I never signed anything with Mazda for my last car.
Is this some strange American thing where all the cars are owned by the car company and you only purchase the right to use them?
Re: (Score:2)
The mistake we make is in judging political entities by the liberties they endorse.
Instead we should recognize that all political entities believe in regulating the behaviors they believe are counter-productive to their world view or they believe prevent achieving their goals.
Re: (Score:3)
I find it amusing how conservatives, who are usually the most energetic at raging against regulations and the mommy state, are the most eager to impose mountains of regulations, draconian censorship and generally the mommy state on the public in order to regulate other people's sexual behaviour. I
This goes for conservatives (Republicans) in the US as well. They're against regulation of businesses, but they sure are happy about regulating people's personal life..
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
My libraries WiFi and desktops seem to be pretty locked down. Never tried to access porn there but I did get kicked off for trying to upload a zip file to a ftp site.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless I'm missing something, how exactly do they plan to enforce this for overseas sites?
/quote>
Use their position in the EU to enforce it against the 26% of porn hosted in the Netherlands, as well as other locations in the EU.... oh, wait ....
Re: (Score:1)
They don't have to "know" anything. It's just rhetoric to get elected and stay in office, which to that end is perfectly suitable. Nothing to see here...
Re: (Score:1)
These crusty politicans have no idea how the internet works. Sad, really.
Actually the only ideas they may have is about how to be (re)elected. Hopefully they are often plain wrong about this too.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, it's very easy to lose all your visitors, too, if that's your goal. It's not like there aren't millions of other porn sites out there for free.
Frankly, I think if one has the capacity to lie when they click the "Yes, I'm over 18" button, then it is perfectly acceptable they have a healthy wank in the privacy of their own homes. I'd much rather they do that than knock up the girl next door.
I really don't care what other people do in their bedrooms. If I'm not involved, I'm not interested. I don't under
Re: (Score:2)
Good luck with that (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
If you're implying this is a dupe, well, it isn't.
Ratings for websites != Age verification for websites.
Re: (Score:3)
This is the brainchild of Andrea Leadsom, one of the two final contestants for leadership of the Tory party (and hence the post of PM until the next general election). According to a comment on this story on The Register, she already has a reputation around Westminster as a "self-serving simpleton". Theresa May (the other contestant) is generally expected to win.
Re: (Score:2)
Panic not, it won't happen.
This is the brainchild of Andrea Leadsom, one of the two final contestants for leadership of the Tory party (and hence the post of PM until the next general election). According to a comment on this story on The Register, she already has a reputation around Westminster as a "self-serving simpleton". Theresa May (the other contestant) is generally expected to win.
I got that impression too, i.e. that May will win. Having said that, I watched Leadsom being grilled pretty hard by some parliamentary committee on YouTube yesterday and she seemed eloquent enough so I wouldn't exactly call Leadsom a 'simpleton', but she does not make the impression of being the kind of Machiavellian psychopath that you need to be to win a Tory party leadership election and then stay in that position for any length of time. It probably also helps to have a patch of lizard armour-skin grafte
Re: (Score:2)
Incidentally, May is a great image-person and self-publicist but her actual level of achievement is less than stellar, see: http://order-order.com/2016/07... [order-order.com] which was pulled from the (right wing) Daily Telegrap
Re:futile (Score:5, Interesting)
"This is the brainchild of Andrea Leadsom, one of the two final contestants for leadership of the Tory party..."
Who by current indications will be eating a boiled kangaroo's anus on I'm A Celebrity in about 12 month's time. This, however, is only a tiny compensation for the fact that Teresa May will become PM.
On a general note, what can be done about the policy ratchets that these people advocate? That is, the belief that things are bad because the policies that brought them about (eg financialisation, under investment in social infrastructure, wealth concentration, mass surveillance, censorship, etc.) were simply not implemented hard enough.
This is the essence of what people like May and Leadsom believe: like a sort of Taliban approach to politics. Corporation tax in the UK is lower than almost anywhere in the EU and we have intense austerity policies partly as a result. So what do we do - we lower it some more because *obviously* the economy isn't getting better as a result of the previous lowering. What happens if we lower corporation tax to zero then? Where is the evidence that these policies are working as they are right now, let alone that they will work better for being all the more extreme?
Re: (Score:3)
I find modern economics, which is what leads to the disaster we have when it comes to government and the actual economy, to be an absurd house of cards. Most of their basic concepts are ok as abstract concepts, but then they apply math on the basis of 'if everything else is the same'. With a blissful ignorance that the factors they chose to look at may not be the only factors in question.
Even 'simple' concepts like 'supply and demand' have some exterior items that can mean more than price (which is all the
Re: (Score:2)
No it doesn't.
Re: (Score:2)
I've had quite an argument with a professor of economics and she felt that S&D said exactly that. For a low enough price it should effectively 'create demand'. She used free pins advertising causes of all sorts as a 'perfect example' where people take them just because they are free. And if you were talking about my mom or grandmother who are/were packrats then yes it's sort of true. However I have no need or desire for a useless piece of metal even when they are free and would turn it down. My argument
Re: (Score:2)
There's also the people who see a way to exploit it.
"Ohh, this company is giving away free pens. Let's see... the pen has an aluminium body. Cool. What's the scrap value for aluminium? I'll take two million pens, please."
Re: (Score:2)
Next time you're at DeVry ask her what would be the case if they were dipped in shit from an ebola hospital.
Re: (Score:2)
I couldn't stand how Micro-Economics was taught in the 90's. The professor was attempting to explain "supply and demand" in relation to cost. Two coffee shops, one with coffee that costs X, another with coffee that costs more than X. So which coffee shop sells more coffee?
So I ask, "which one is closer|more convenient to get to?" Not Relevant
What do you mean not relevant? If there's a coffee shop downstairs (in the cafeteria) with $2 coffee, and there's coffee for $1 - 5 blocks away, that takes 30+ mins ro
quit being so simple (Score:2)
factors for choosing a coffee shop
1 price
2 location
3 type and quality of coffee
4 "social" factors
5 environmental factors
6 other items available
7 formats/ presentation of goods
and thats just a cup of coffee
Re: (Score:2)
Two coffee shops, one with coffee that costs X, another with coffee that costs more than X. So which coffee shop sells more coffee?
So I ask, "which one is closer|more convenient to get to?" Not Relevant
It's unfortunate that your professor was apparently unable to explain this in a way you would understand, but the reason that these extra factors are not relevant is that for the purpose of the illustration they have already been included in the cost. To take your example:
If there's a coffee shop downstairs (in the cafeteria) with $2 coffee, and there's coffee for $1 - 5 blocks away, that takes 30+ mins round trip, then it doesn't matter much that coffee is cheaper.
The cost of the first cup is $2 and a walk downstairs, while the cost of the second cup is $1 and 30 minutes of travel. Which one is cheaper overall depends on how each individual values money vs. convenience. You can be sure, however, tha
Re: (Score:2)
Yet in the 90's, I looked at it as a programmer, Supply | Demand are variables, they have external influences - that affect them, except the Prof short-circuited that whole idea - which turned it into a big disconnect for myself.
In the "Real World", I would say my concept|question back then was correct. Supply and Demand ARE affected by external influences, but all those external influence
Re: (Score:2)
Not that either proposal has much merit, of course, for similar reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
It will no longer be cool and exciting and instead be boring and uninteresting
Speak for yourself.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
how does this work?
Like every other bit of political rhetoric. You appeal to peoples' antipathy, and they vote for you.
Re: (Score:2)
every time i see some weird killswitch legislation proposed in the UK im boggled as to how this gets implemented...
How it's implemented? Very simple: not.
That's anyway not the job of politicians. They only decide what has to be done. Not how it has to be done.
Re: (Score:3)
"They only decide what has to be done. Not how it has to be done."
It's getting worse than that in fact. In many cases, politicians seem to know their policies can't in fact be executed, but they don't really care. This is because the simple act of pushing for legislation (enacted or not) is enough to do the job of getting people to vote for them. It's like the Trump Wall: there is no way that Trump and his team actually think they'll be able to build the wall. They just know that all they have to do is be s
Re: (Score:2)
It's not exactly rocket science how this would work, same way you can't buy porn mags or go to strip clubs and just say you're over 18. Today there are tons of sites that will show hardcore porn to any teenager willing so say "suuuuuure I'm 18+". Like first time you go to brazzers.com:
This website contains age-restricted materials. If you are under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority in the location from where you are accessing this website you do not have authorization or permission to enter this website or access any of its materials. If you are over the age of 18 years or over the age of majority in the location from where you are accessing this website by entering the website you hereby agree to comply with all the TERMS AND CONDITIONS. You also acknowledge and agree that you are not offended by nudity and explicit depictions of sexual activity. By clicking on the "Enter" button, and by entering this website you agree with all the above and certify under penalty of perjury that you are an adult.
Click enter and they'll show you porn. Previews, to make you sign up but more than enough for curious teenagers. And the warning is all just scary talk since minors can't enter contracts and nothing is "under penalty of perjur
Re: (Score:2)
Pornography is something of an impulse decision: When you want it, you want it now. Spending ten minutes messing around with an age verification system is going to drive away most customers, who will simply go to one of the many, many non-UK-operated porn sites. Complying with this proposal renders a site commercially unsustainable.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. All of the above, and yet I'm still able to access The Pirate Bay from the UK. Seriously this one site alone is an example of how blocking schemes don't work.
Proxies anyone? (Score:2)
Use a proxy, claim to be from X which doesn't require this. Problem solved.
Am I missing something? Serious question...
Re: (Score:3)
Yes.
The other 99%: "what's a proxy?"
Re:Proxies anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes.
The other 99%: "what's a proxy?"
The 80%: "oh, you mean that thingamajig my friend / neighbour / youtube-video-instructions did to my internet connection so I could watch US-Netflix / pirate movies / porn ?"
Re: (Score:3)
I work at a school. Every now and then, a new game site is suddenly cropping up on our monitoring - usually being played by five students at once, until we block it. Word travels very quickly. From discovery to common knowledge in a day. I don't see why unblocked porn sites would be any different.
Somewhat surprisingly, we very rarely find anyone trying to look for porn. I can only assume no-one wants to look at porn in school, where there is no privacy and lots of people potentially peeking.
Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
It's sick how the politicians are using their usual excuse of "think of the children" to attack the free internet via porn, while they let paedophile (pedophile) gangs roam UK's treats for decades, even police and social services helping these gangs commit their crimes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
But just as bad, while politicians have a fetish over banning porn, they have no problem having 24/7 violence on TV. How many people are killed with sex, and how many people killed because TV gives impression to people that violence is ok?
It's all a smokescreen to control the internet, most people too stupid to see it, they are just fixated on the control porn argument.
Re: (Score:2)
I think whenever a politicial proposes a new law that limits what we can and cannot do, other politicians (MPs, lords, senators, congressman or what have you) should ask a few simple questions before even considering the law, and journalists should keep asking until they get a satisfactory answer:
- What problem are you
Re: (Score:1)
This should apply to any law. Similar to actual process leading to any action in a group - decide if there is a problem, what the reasons are, how to fix it, decide on a solution and verify the effects, repeat if need be.
There is a problem with this tho, more than one actually. When such method is deployed you need some sort of agreement on the deployment or else those that disagree just boycott the groups' decisions. The other is lobby work - clear statement of goal will show who our heroes sold themselve
Re: (Score:2)
"with an automatic repeal in case success is not achieved or evaluated"
While I think that's actually a pretty good idea (and see also the discussions about randomised control trials in social policy), but it may lead to a "ratchet effect" occurring. This is because, basically, the only thing elected officials can do is legislate in reaction to anything. Something bad happens? Pass a law to ban it.
So if a law doesn't have the desired effect, it may well be seen to have been too mild. Kids still viewing porn
Re: (Score:2)
The automatic repeal goes hand in hand with those questions: additional stricter measures would increasingly fail the question of proportionality.
Re: (Score:3)
If implemented it would create a tsunami of credit card fraud. Training users to enter their card details as authentication for porn sites is incredibly stupid and dangerous.
Re: (Score:1)
We already have that: teens restricted by ASBOs to their council estates. In other news, teenage pregnancies are on the rise.
Pigs Head (Score:3)
The list? (Score:3)
Britain's prime minister "says none of Britain's top 10 porn sites -- which account for 52% of all views...
Ok... lost me right there... where can I find that list?
They're doing what politicians must.. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
GB never lost sovereignty, they gave it added value by combining it with that of other EU nations.
Basically people were too lazy to follow the news and read the tabloids instead.
Good Parenting should be enough (Score:1)
Having websites act as parents isn't an efficient solution. Teach parents how to use decent parental control software and about the importance to monitoring what their children do online (not just porn) would be far more effective.
This issue will probably get less over time as the current generation of internet and computer illiterate parents are gradually replaced by the next generation that grew up with the internet and won't need a state sponsored course in this.To be honest I think one of the bigger iss
Re: (Score:2)
Good parenting is rare enough to the point it is not statistically significant.
That's because good parents are rare, etc.
So the society tries other options. Well, this one will fail.
Yes, the options other than improving the parents. The stupid are easier to lead. That's why we mostly eat cows and chickens. Well, and vegetables, but they don't run at all.
Let's just give up anonymity (Score:1)
America #1 (Score:4, Funny)
study found that 60% of the world's porn was hosted in America
I knew America was still number 1 at something.
Re: (Score:2)
It's how we erected the internet.
pulling my dick (Score:1)
give credit card details to a porn site,
you're pulling my dick!
Re: (Score:2)
ISP level is where to do it (Score:2)
Rather than requiring foreign sites to adapt, the ISP level porn blockers could be adapted to do this: require an account's owner be age verified. How you separate access from an authorised machine at a home address from one which is not is another matter, but I doubt it's that hard. My worry is that this is more of a political stunt to win votes from conservative votes with tradition-derived anti-sex attitudes, and to try and win the religous vote to the Tories away from Labour: compassion and care for the
Cameron trying to maximize damage before he goes? (Score:2)
Seriously, what the hell is this supposed to do, aside of pretty much kill the only industry in Britain that's not been hit by the Brexit already? Nobody outside the Isle of Splendid Isolation gives halve a fuck about their laws, so the only thing this will affect is that porn providers outside GB will cater to British tastes more in an attempt to attract Brits as customers.
And of course any and all porn in Britain will do what the rest of the industry already does: Pack up and leave.
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't say that Merkel was any better than Cameron. Actually, for someone who allegedly studied physics he's a pretty big dimwit.
Even more shoe-on-head-stupid politicians (Score:2)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: at t
Re: (Score:2)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: at the rate things are going, we're going to end up with NO internet at all, only 'walled gardens' within national borders, that are utterly useless for anything serious due to lack of connectivity and too many controls, along with a useless substitute for actual encryption.
Remember, telecommunications companies are people too. For once, corporate control of so many governments worldwide will work in our favor. They can't actually cut the cables. The telcos make too much money off of them to allow that. At best, they'll all buy Great Firewalls, and the rest of the world's population will catch up with the general Chinese population, who are already adept at tunneling through the Great Firewall.
The average 3 felonies per day that everyone already commits will rise to 4 and
Priorities (Score:2)
It is really good to see that the Tories, having fixed that pesky EU brexit problem, have moved on to the next important issue already.
It just shows what they are really after - now, with the EU regulations possibly out of the window, they can get rid of stupid commie crap like worker protections, human rights or privacy protections. Let's do everything to make the rich even richer and screw everyone else.
You'll turn 14-year-old boys into criminals (Score:1)
I assume using someone else's credit card without authorization is a crime in Great Britain.
If it's not, well, nevermind then.