“This broad amendment takes power away from [UK] parliament and Ofcom and hands it to ministers. The consequence of this would be every adult having to provide their personal data, or use their body and biometric features as a key to unlock the Internet."

It doesn't address the structural causes of online harms and can be used to restrict content ideologically.

🗣️ @JamesBaker

#onlinesafety #digitalid #privacy #ageverification #freedomofexpression #ukpolitics #ukpol

@openrightsgroup @JamesBaker Alternately users could abandon all UK-hosted and UK-compliant websites, and use only the darknet and noncompliant sites such as noncompliant Mastodon servers which will always exist.

The only counter to this is ID require to obtain SIM cards and landline connections, with existing SIMs cancelled unless registered with ID. Mexico was forced by noncompliance to abandon an attempt to do this.

VPN controls won't work either, non-UK based VPNs will ignore ID requirements and the malicious "free" ones certainly will. Then there's Tor, which they cannot block without blocking their own military's use of it.

The UK cannot afford to copy the Great Firewall of China, which is labor-intensive to run from what I hear and leaks like a sieve when facing determined opponents,

I think the "legal" Internet will become largely deserted except for shopping in large parts of the world.

I have yet to see an age verifiication prompt from any site even when accessing porn from inside Florida, again due to mass noncompliance.

@JamesBaker @openrightsgroup A big limiting factor the age verification thugs face on under-13 is that fact that few 13 year olds have government-issued ID. In the US, teens who do not drive or have a bank account may not have any sort of ID either.

Asking for school ID's leave out those who are homeschooled, have dropped out, or go to private schools that do not issue ID.

If they try that anyway, a false ID claiming to have been issued by a school that does not exist may be legal on the grounds that it is not a counterfeit of anyone else's document