How's it going since the UK Online Safety Act slammed an age gate on the Internet?
Age verification providers with dodgy privacy policies, over-moderation of content, scammers scheming and sites closing down.
Here's a week in the life of an unworkable law ⬇️
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/the-great-british-firewall-age-verification-has-failed/
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #freedomofexpression #censorship #netplurality
Reddit, Grindr and Bluesky have chosen age verification providers based outside the UK with concerning privacy policies. Go figure.
❌ You can't choose provider
❌ Platforms don't need to pick certified providers
❌ Providers don't need to meet specific privacy or security standards
✅ Regulate the age verification industry now.
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #freedomofexpression #censorship #netplurality
Age verification goes way beyond porn, impacting everything from Reddit to Spotify to Xbox.
❌ Content is being age gated when it shouldn’t, including subreddits for sexual health like r/STD, for health like r/stopsmoking, or news like r/israelexposed and an X post featuring a speech about grooming gangs by Katie Lam MP.
✅ Limit the scope of the UK Online Safety Act.
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #freedomofexpression #censorship
The Online Safety Act is technologically naive and ignorant to privacy risks, so people are finding ways around age verification. But...
❌ Teens could be pushed towards riskier things like the dark web, dodgy free VPNs or scams.
✅ Invest in a public information campaign to help people navigate online safety and learn about the privacy risks of age verification.
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #security #cybersecurity
Plurality online is being wrecked.
The UK Online Safety Act imposes heavy burdens on small sites, including risk assessments for a broad range of content, the threat of fines or the cost of checking the age of every user.
❌ Many small sites are shutting down or blocking UK users entirely.
✅ Change the categorisation of sites, so small sites and instances are exempt.
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #netplurality
The UK Online Safety Act is a hot mess 🥴
Drunk on boarding up more of the Internet than even the government's paedo test could justify.
Pushing people into riskier stuff online, enabling scammers and walking off with your ID.
Tell your MP to sort it out! ⬇️
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-your-mp-online-safety-act-isn%E2%80%99t-working
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #privacy #ageverification #ageassurance #ukpolitics #ukpol #netplurality #censorship #cybersecurity
What's the problem? The Online Safety Act has been a disaster. Rather than protect children, millions of adults are facing widespread censorship, and teenagers are having their freedom of expression restricted. Here are some of the key problems with the law: Wrongful Censorship: The law places huge liabilities and threats of jail on platforms if they don't censor the right content. It does little to protect freedom of expression. The results are in. Footage of protest censored on X. Subreddits about stopping smoking, sexual health, and the news age-gated and shadow-banned.
@openrightsgroup So UK 16 & 17 year olds are to get the vote, but are now blocked from informing themselves about issues that may concern them, even posts by MPs? And they can give consent, but not read about sexual health?
@openrightsgroup I work as a dev consultant and all my clients/work recently involves me being a sort of "digital janitor" cleaning up vibe coders/AI's mess. Number #1 clean up? security exploits. AI simply can't do it.
Just look at what happened with the Tea app. I wouldn't trust ANY of these verification providers as far as I could throw them.
The BEST thing the user can do right now is use VPN's. Mullvad, Proton, Self Host Wireguard, whatever. DO NOT GIVE ANY OF THESE PLACES YOUR ID.
Open Rights Group
Ryan - G8RKE
Chris Fox
rozodru