The UK government has put out a consultation asking about

• Social media age restrictions
• Age verification technology
• Restricting dark patterns like autoplay
• Phones in schools
• "Digital age of consent"

This is our chance to make our voices heard and influence legislation & guidance. Fill it out, and share it with your friends!

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

#OnlineSafetyAct #uk #ukPol #privacy #privacyRights #ChatControl #surveilance #socialMedia #adTech

Age checks and digital ID are being sold as safety and convenience. But when proving who you are becomes the price of using everyday digital tools, privacy stops being a right and starts becoming permission.

Will you accept digital life being gated by Identity checks, or push back now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keJL1NWpZ4A

#Privacy #DigitalID #OnlineSafetyAct #UKPolitics #Freedom

The UK is seeking to grant ministers wide-ranging new powers to rewrite significant portions of the Online Safety Act through amendments tucked into two unrelated bills.

The changes would allow ministers to amend the act by adding as much as a third to the regulatory regime using so-called Henry VIII clauses, limiting Parliament to a simple yes-or-no vote on an unforeseeable number of new rules, rather than full debate or amendment.

#OnlineSafetyAct #UKPolitics #AI

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-online-safety-act-ai-harms-government-labour-grok-elon-musk/

The report of the Southport Inquiry (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-southport-inquiry-phase-1-report) makes for horrifying reading.

Perhaps of particular note to those interested in #OnlineSafetyAct issues, chapter 6 (online harms) of the report:

* leads with criticism of a lack of parental oversight / responsibility, which I found unusual.

* suggests that VPN usage in the UK should be subject to age / identity verification.

* notes that X was unhelpful in its responses to the Inquiry's statutory information requirements.

I'm a software engineer & 20yr Labour member: my open letter to the PM on our dangerous trajectory. Banning VPNs & mandating device scanning demolishes privacy for everyone:
https://www.jimmyff.co.uk/blog/open-letter-uk-digital-privacy/

cc: @openrightsgroup @eff
#DigitalPrivacy #Encryption #UKpolitics #OnlineSafetyAct

I find it bizarre that the AgeVerification (AV) industry says “platforms don’t want AV because they don’t want private data” – BUT civil society says “platforms DO want AV because they want private data”

It’s like those criticisms of the BBC where they receive conflicting hate from both sides, so you have to start wondering whether the platforms aren’t simply doing the right thing to have pissed-off everybody.

Probably, yes, given the circumstances.

Compare

https://twitter.com/The_AVPA/status/2043608121768096227

Contrast

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2022428994596221081

'UK looks to hold tech execs personally liable for intimate image abuse'

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-looks-to-hold-tech-execs-personally-liable-for-intimate-image-abuse/

'A new government amendment, which is yet to be published but will be tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill and debated in the Commons next week, would mean senior executives who ignore media regulator Ofcom's enforcement decisions under the Online Safety Act face imprisonment and fines.'

#UK #ukpol #technology #OnlineSafetyact