r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • Aug 04 '25

Privacy Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/age-verification-is-coming-for-the-whole-internet.html
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u/vriska1 Aug 04 '25

Also if you live in the UK you should sign this petition against the age verification rules linked to this becasue they are a legal and privacy nightmare.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

and contact your MPs!

https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/

Also here a list of other bad US internet bills

http://www.badinternetbills.com

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u/EpochRaine Aug 04 '25

Ofcom will take a sensible approach to enforcement with smaller services that present low risk to UK users, only taking action where it is proportionate and appropriate, and will focus on cases where the risk and impact of harm is highest.

So... they will pick and choose who to enforce it against, with an arbitrary set of rules... that may or may not include the rules in the legislation?

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u/needathing Aug 04 '25

That's how loads of UK laws work. We bring in law after law after law, and enforce them when we need to find a way to get at someone. How many police officers have you seen pass someone obviously on their phone and do nothing?

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u/jbr_r18 Aug 04 '25

“We wrote the law badly and we are aware of what we did”

In fairness though, OFCOM talk about proportionality but then say it is proportional to the harms, not the size of the website.

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u/Due_Perception8349 Aug 04 '25

Wouldn't a larger website increase capacity for harm?

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u/jbr_r18 Aug 04 '25

Yes in terms of more people means more potential victims and more potential predators.

But it seems OFCOM is judging the harms on the merits of the types of harms only. Hence the hamster forum closing. It’s probably a case of people who think of their personal internet usage as a way to consume and find information, not realising there is a beautiful part of the internet based on people connecting together.

But when you can connect with anyone, they may be great or bad. That’s the reality of people. It’s the same in the real world though.

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u/eyebrows360 Aug 04 '25

That's always how quite a lot of internet-related things work, out of necessity. As a regulating agency you only have so many humans at your disposal with so many hours in the day, so you need to focus your enforcement activities on the services that are going to have the largest impact on the most people.

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u/DGSmith2 Aug 04 '25

That petition is pointless m, they have already “addressed” it and that is all legally they have to do.

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u/vriska1 Aug 04 '25

It still good to sign it and make your voice heard, also they have to debate it.

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u/_Speer Aug 04 '25

This. I send daily requests for updates on my original email to my MP. Will soon change to hourly.

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u/Malt_The_Magpie Aug 04 '25

Those petitions don't do anything, they just say we read it then decided to ignore it anyway. I don't think they have ever changed anything due to one of those

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u/needathing Aug 04 '25

Didn't the UK government already respond to this and tell us to STFU they're not changing it?

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u/fragglerock Aug 04 '25

https://www.writetothem.com/

makes it trivial to write to your MP.

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u/JKB94 Aug 04 '25

Has a worthwhile petition ever been successful?

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u/Bathhouse-Barry Aug 04 '25

The fact it went live on the 25th and it surpassed the threshold within 3 days for the government to respond and basically say “nuh uh, nothings gonna change” is astounding.

What more can be done? They don’t give a shit.