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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Pro@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

By 25 July, all sites and apps that allow pornography – whether they are dedicated adult sites or social media, search or gaming services – must use highly effective age checks to ensure children are not normally able to encounter it. Online firms who publish their own pornography are already required to protect children from it, and thousands of sites have already introduced robust age checks in response. 

Major porn providers operating in the UK have confirmed to Ofcom that they will introduce effective checks by next month’s deadline in order to comply with the new rules. They include PornHub, the most-visited pornographic service in the UK. Other services who are happy to be named at this stage include BoyfriendTV, Cam4, FrolicMe, inxxx, Jerkmate, LiveHDCams, MyDirtyHobby, RedTube, Streamate, Stripchat, Tube8, and YouPorn. This represents a broad range of pornography services accessed in the UK.

Monitoring compliance with these new duties is a priority for Ofcom. If any company fails to comply with its new duties, Ofcom can impose fines and – in very serious cases – apply for a court order to prevent the site or app from being available in the UK. As part of our work enforcing the Online Safety Act, we have already launched investigations into four porn providers and won’t hesitate to take further action from July.

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[-] 7112@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago

This feel strangely like it has little to do with actually protecting kids...

[-] 0x0@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 month ago

It's more about penetrating your privacy but think of the children is the go-to argument to sugar-coat that.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Someone should be asking what the sentence will be for kids who commit identity fraud and use someone else's ID to set up an account. It may flip the narrative to point out they are intentionally creating more criminal acts that will get kids in trouble with the law and possibly ruin lives.

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[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Well they should at least give me a reach around if they are going to penetrate my privacy.

[-] Ushmel@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It's about making LGBTQ content "adult only" and using this same mechanism to enforce ID law on that content. They've been doing it in some USA states for a few years now. No one wants to be the Porn Politician that votes against it.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 month ago

If UK really wanted to protect the kids, they would've jailed Transphobe JK Rowings for hate crime

[-] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

The UK is transphobic too though.

[-] letsgo2themall@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

mastodon has porn and you don't even need an account to use search. also, this will just drive people to use sketchy sites that won't follow the rules.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

You can literally find porn on search engines. Google images is a bit restrictive but Bing, Duckduckgo etc will straight up show porn in the image or video searches.

[-] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh no. Some hackers hacked out database and released all the ID information on high profile people. Oh such whoopsie, we made.

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[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Depends entirely on how it's implemented, because the website doesn't need to know who you are, only verify that you are over 18. Which can be done reasonably securely - you generate a random ID on a secure service (e.g here in Finland, we use our online banking stuff for official verification purposes), give that ID to the website, and the only communication between the two of them is "Is id 123 valid and an adult? Yes/No".

Now, if that "secure service", most likely a government contract done as cheaply as possible turns out not to be, and they keep logs linking those IDs to the URLs requesting verification, then the entire thing goes belly up.

[-] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So your bank now knows you accessed certain websites. And likely one or more middleware services. And you are okay with that?

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Was an example of the security, not who is running the service. But I mean, guess who knows if you pay for OnlyFans or stuff like that?
Your bank.

And like I said, it's only really secure if the service doesn't keep a database of logs connecting the two.

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

I'm sure the most rigorous of data safety standards will be followed. After all they're being forced to do this I'm sure they won't take the cheapest possible route. Oh definitely not.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

If your kid has half a brain he'll do what we did as kids when porn sites were blocked on the home WiFi: He'll just get a VPN.

And when VPN websites were blocked on the home WiFi, we'd just download their apps on mobile data.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Better to educate your kids on their natural urges and letting them use the more moderated sites than have them go down the more dodgy rabbitholes. No kink shaming but some of the things people do are nasty.

[-] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Do we know how the age verification process is gonna work or is this gonna be one of those neoliberal dystopian spystate kinda deals where the means of data collection is left to corporations only to be subsequently tapped by the state when the want to target individuals?

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well it's been monitored by ofcom who we all know are the last word in inefficiency, corruption, and stupidity so I'm going to go ahead and guess that they're just going to say they're doing checks, and Ofcom just not going to check.

They're probably going to add a second pop-up after the "are you 18" pop-up that says "are you lying".

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[-] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

So people too young or too privacy conscious to use those major platforms will move to nicher porn sites. Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all... /s

[-] MiyamotoKnows@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Garbage. This info will be weaponized by anyone who is willing to buy it.

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[-] addie@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago

So all of the mainstream porn will be blocked, leaving all of the niche and special-interest stuff available? Excellent, excellent...

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

Interestingly there are noticeable absences from that list.

Perhaps that's by design, there's no reason the politicians would make their own lives more difficult.

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[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

don't the uk have a history of straight up putting porn in print magazines and on free television every day?

[-] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Page 3 of the sun newspaper was the famous one for just having a topless women emblazoned on it

[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

To Americans, tits may be considered porn. To a good chunk of the rest of the world, it’s not as pornographic.

[-] missingno@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

Nudity isn't always pornographic or sexual depending on the context. But in this context it absolutely is. The Sun put tits there to sexually arouse readers, that was the point.

[-] tinned_tomatoes@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

Even having a girl as young as 16 on there, which I don't think was legal (age of consent is 16 in the UK but I don't think that extends to pornography).

The Sun only stopped it in the last 15 years.

[-] jasoman@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

So much for being better than the US. Welcome to the downfall of modern society UK.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

It's been happening for decades.

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[-] devolution@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Say it with me folks! VPN!

[-] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I'm disappointed that Pornhub is apparently capitulating instead of blocking access entirely in protest, like they've done in other jurisdictions.

[-] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 1 month ago

I think they realized that they won't get the jurisdiction to bend on this one, and the general response from UK government will be "good riddance to bad rubbish".

[-] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

VPN subs will be up and UK viewership will be nonexistent

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Are they going to add a box to enter your age like on Steam that you immediately roll back to 1st January 1901?

[-] peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

6/9/1969....every time

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[-] HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

And when this measure fails to protect children and, instead, becomes a data security nightmare, another scheme will be proposed to further erode the freedoms the web brings.

I look forward to hearing about the workarounds kids find.

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[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

I wonder what a fake beard or mustache does as far as fooling the machine goes?

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

So what privacy will I have to give up?

Actually I'm in Canada so I'm probably safe anyway.

I mean... I don't watch porn so this doesn't affect my anyway...

It’s tied to your account on the website. So it’s tied to all of your viewing activity. It could be leaked or compromised. It could be subpoenaed. It could be purchased.

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this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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