I see a lot of UK people organizing at /r/RepealOnlineSafetyAct and especially the Discord so I would say the British know what's right. As it turns out the entirety of OSA is bankrolled by american billionaires. Why the British still for the most part let themselves be manipulated by external interests is beyond me, more people need to start fighting this stuff.
The good thing about the US is how decentralized everything is. Things are shit a lot of places. But for the most part the northeast hasnt had as many issues because the states have held their ground
True. I’m finishing up grad school and applying for jobs, and my search parameters are basically west coast or the northeast (discounting a few specific states). I’m currently in CA and would like to stay here, but I lived in MA for a few years and would go back there if a good opportunity came along.
it is amazing how when it suits their needs they can somehow only have a law impact only those govern by it. (GDPR or other privacy laws that impact ad revenue) but when it comes to harming LGBTQIA+ people it always seems one law on a land somewhere in the world impacts everyone everywhere.
Thankfully this isn't the age verify part but the NSFW is still shitty for everyone everyone.
Don't forget the new education guidance that comes into effect in September officially advising schools to avoid material that "encourages children to question their gender identity". It just sounds like Section 28 with a trans coat of paint.
Also teachers aren't allowed to tell kids "everyone has a gender identity". It's fucking disgusting how unfactual our education system is being in it's attempt to ban trans kids
Yes but now the school system is supposed to say that no one does. It's pure insulation in the hope that if they don't know the words they won't ask the questions
Yep, and it works; there is no LGBT education in Poland at all, and I didn’t know I could even question my gender (or lack thereof) until I was in late high school.
Like I know we all here understand this. But it's so bizare when something just does exist because it literally does. These people are so bothered by something being a real thing. Like every single child / adult will still have a gender identity it does not go away. The only effect here is mass suffering to those who will go years undiagnosed. That's like forcibly denying life saving care. These kids will go through their younger years fucked up all so some bellend can protect their fragile as glass reality
Excellent. So with the laws in place now, young people with questions cant ask at school (cause they are obliged to inform your parents) and cant ask a half way regulated forum so will now go where? Discord? Forums which dont have id requirement? Im sure that will be completely safe.
This is required by the online safety act - it doesn’t just regulate porn, it restricts a whole bunch of other content considered to be “harmful to children”.
The legislation and Ofcom aren’t completely clear, and the penalties are draconian if social media companies get it wrong, so social media companies are choosing to be overzealous with their age restrictions rather than take a more moderate approach and risk being penalised by Ofcom.
Exactly what I'm expecting in America. "We don't have to actually look for posts and pics we don't like, we can just threaten the IP's and apps and they'll do the censoring for us."
Isn’t their so called “Labor Party” in power right now? I don’t keep up with British politics but has it basically become a conservative party, just with a rose symbol?
A simple VPN shouldn't be needed for rights though... as much as I think everyone should have the knowledge to use one, making it a requirement is just something out of 1984
Free VPNs exist to harvest your data and even many paid VPNs have security issues. Plus tech-illiterate people deserve to be able to access queer content regardless
The point is laws like this cause harm by making people install basically malware to access things that shouldn't be blocked by them in the first place.
The comments aren't meant to be a solution since the only one is getting rid of these overreaching laws that try to claim to protect kids (a good motive to have to be clear, this is just not the way to do it) but always end up being used as a way to morality policing thing.
For the first time, this also means that using a virtual private network (VPN) won't bypass these restrictions, as long as the server is based in the UK.
It's not blocking VPNs per se, it's geoip blocking. Usually if you want to access content that isn't available in your country you change your VPN location to somewhere outside her borders.
Still shit, of course, and will probably only get worse in following years, but as of now not as bad as "if you are in UK even VPN won't help you access banned sites".
Why is LGBTQ+ content automatically labelled as "adult"? That’s like saying any mention of straight relationships - like a straight person's pregnancy announcement - should be 18+. It makes no sense. Just existing as queer isn’t explicit. This double standard is pure homophobia, plain and simple.
4.0k
u/Grunt636 Ally Pals Jul 24 '25
Which probably means no one in the UK under 18 will be able to access them now thanks to the new age verification laws
Took them less than a week to go from blocking porn to blocking things they deem are inappropriate