Pornhub to introduce ‘government approved’ UK age checks

And what they going to do about reddit that is a far easier accessible porn source? These things are always silly and just push people to other sources

How will this affect my visits to Pornhub that I make using a VPN?

Yeah noticed the same with Xhamster giving warning notices. VPN it is then!

Anyone got that image of the gate in the middle of nowhere with no fence. This is that. Utterly pointless.

Just because the policy makers have 0 understanding of the Internet 🤦‍♂️ They seem to think because *they* can’t think of a way around it, that todays kids are not already discussing how to get around this if they don’t already know about VPNs

What about Google Image Search ? You only need to select one option to unblur the results.

Incredibly naive law – it’s just going to push people towards shadier, unregulated sites (to quote a prominent scientist, “life will find a way”, especially when talking about teenagers and porn :p)

far better to invest in educational materials, resources for parents etc, content filtering/gatekeeping always backfires ><

(Couldn’t do my a-level physics coursework at school cause ‘rod’ in ‘graphite rod’ was filtered… and somehow router-level filtering once blacklisted the BBCs entire website for my parents, that was a fun tech help job XD)

I have a kinda similar take to this as people often do to legalising drugs.

It’s often safer to have an easily accessible legitimate source than push people to a sketchy source. if all the legit porn sites implement age verification, people including underage teens, will find other sources that are less regulated, and have sketchier content.

Underage teens will not just stop when they see that verification page, they will keep digging.

This is concerning. They’ve pushed back against similar laws across the world, the fact they’re rolling over and accepting it in the UK either means we’re such a big market they can’t afford to close here for a few months, which is extremely unlikely, or their legal advice suggests there’s no possible avenues left to fight against the Online Safety Act.

All the people going on about VPNs and how this won’t actually make a difference. Most people, even teenagers, are not Redditors and won’t be arsed to set up a VPN to watch porn, so it will make *some* difference. Whether it will make as much difference as the government hopes is an entirely different matter.

Can’t wait to apply for my government wanking licence. Wonder if you’ll be able to get them at the post office.

All this will do is drive people (including -18) to less legitimate and moderated websites, people will be exposed to more extreme and sketchy home made porn.

Another sign that our politicians are woefully tech illiterate. Any teenager that wants to see porn can use a VPN or visit any of the less mainstream sites that couldn’t care less about verifying ages.

Bye Pornhub, this along with all the bans in American states, it was a long run

I completely agree with the need to safeguard children from these websites however:

1) It doesn’t take a genius to be able to circumvent these checks… Just look at how there’s ten new piracy streaming websites for every one taken down.

2) Social media is flooded with provocative content. Even when you make a brand new account, the feed drops this type of thing in and it’s hard to avoid. Even when clicking not-interested on every single one, they’ll try to push it back through.

3) Creating a framework for ID checks on websites sets a precedent for restricting the freedom of the internet and privacy.

4) Look at Australia who tried to do a similar thing, spent something like 200 million dollars… And then abandoned the whole idea. With the UK’s track record of overspending, delaying and cancelling, I won’t be surprised with how this goes.

Okay so even if it isn’t 100% fool proof, should we do it anyway to make access harder? Well let’s look at piracy as the best example of how it only gets easier to access every year. The days of limewire torrents are replaced with interfaces better than Netflix’s.

I think most kids are just curious but good at heart. We should be spreading awareness of how industry is rife with extreme exploitation and abuse during the sex-education curriculum in primary schools.