Age Verification Legislation

[starbreaker]

i wonder how (indie) website hosts will deal with it.

neocities, nekoweb and leprd allow NSFW art/writings, but... is there a danger for them currently? i didn't see any posts about it, so i'm confused.

can anyone more tech-y than me explain how it works?

My site is hosted by Nearly Free Speech, which is based in the US. I suspect that if the UK government demanded compliance with the Online Safety Act their lawyers would send a response that translates to "Bugger off. We don't answer to Parliament or the Crown. There was a war over this back in 1776."

[crazyroostereye]

i wonder how (indie) website hosts will deal with it.

neocities, nekoweb and leprd allow NSFW art/writings, but... is there a danger for them currently? i didn't see any posts about it, so i'm confused.

can anyone more tech-y than me explain how it works?

My site is hosted by Nearly Free Speech, which is based in the US. I suspect that if the UK government demanded compliance with the Online Safety Act their lawyers would send a response that translates to "Bugger off. We don't answer to Parliament or the Crown. There was a war over this back in 1776."

Kinda, Platforms are Required to do the Age Verification in the UK. So if Nekoweb, Neocites, etc are accessible from the UK they do have to Implement the Age Verification to all people from the UK. They can Avoid it by blocking all traffic from there, or do what other Platforms use and implement an Age Verification Service to all Traffic from the UK. But yeah every Company and Person has to implement smth like that if they are Accessible from there.

That is the Legal part, so it doesn't matter where the Server or Company sits, It's from where it is reachable that is important. And Treaty between most of the Western world would require these Companies to be Fined and Judged in the UK. Tho this is a bit of more unchartered territory.

On the Technical side, how do they know where you are from. Simply the IP, the IP that is given to you to Access the Internet with is Geotagged by you ISP. This is normal, every Public IP is tagged, the Accuracy of tagging can get as Accurate to City level or as in accurate as only saying your in that Country. This Depends on the ISP.

[rina]

i dont think the owner of nekoweb even has the resources to implement age verification even if he wanted to. especially now when he's escaping war.



nekoweb isnt even a company its his side project. the UK can go fuck itself for including individuals in their 1984 bullshit

[XEmoCatX]

The age verification law is stupid, they don't care about kids. They wanted to control information. [] I remember the E safety videos where they said don't show your face, real name and address to strangers on internet, now it's the opposite.

⚑ Moderators Note ⚑

Details of this post have been held back for moderation because they appear to be factually untrue.

[goat]

I remember the E safety videos where they said don't show your face, real name and address to strangers on internet, now it's the opposite.

i'll be damned if i kowtow to the powers that be and surrender my irl data, just so i can shitpost among friends.  the moment that osa thing came into effect, i went and got myself a subscription to nord.  just over ten quid a month.  what's that?  a few beers?  a meal?  a new shirt?  it's a small sacrifice tbh, but the very fact that i had to do that, just to post some silly memes?  it's absolutely absurd.

ofc they have been paying very close attention to vpn usage spiking in popularity and their next thing now is sinking their talons in further with attempts to apply these orwellian tactics to vpn users:

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202601/uk-proposal-for-age-checks-on-vpns-begins-to-look-like-a-policy-traffic-jam

absolutely none of this concerns the safety and well being of children.  that's just a very convenient scapegoat.  it's about control of you, your data, your life.  little by little, we're all being reduced to nothing more than metric data, something they can sell to the highest bidder. 

don't give 'em the satisfaction.  <3

[goat]

So if Nekoweb, Neocites, etc are accessible from the UK they do have to Implement the Age Verification to all people from the UK. They can Avoid it by blocking all traffic from there, or do what other Platforms use and implement an Age Verification Service to all Traffic from the UK.

this happened on spacehey.  an started that site as a project during covid lockdown and with no advertising or data harvesting, it's not exactly a profitable venture for him.  so he's not in a position where he can afford to implement the gubberment sanctioned age verification stuff.  to avoid being fined, he blocked access to the uk when the osa came into effect.  australia followed suit, as did parts of the us.  it's stuff like this which is going to end up creating a bottleneck effect, and its smaller sites that will suffer as a result.

sad times tbh but we do what we can to fight it.  <3

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

absolutely none of this concerns the safety and well being of children.  that's just a very convenient scapegoat.  it's about control of you, your data, your life.  little by little, we're all being reduced to nothing more than metric data, something they can sell to the highest bidder. 

don't give 'em the satisfaction.  <3

i actually think the age verification trend is a byproduct of the AI bubble. i think its ai companies trying to put their software into crucial points of the internet so they can have a permanent source of income. I also saw an article on mastodon about how tech companies in the united states are creating oppressive laws in europe through right wing parties but i dont remember the link

[goat]

i think its ai companies trying to put their software into crucial points of the internet so they can have a permanent source of income.

ai slop being fed into the maw of the internet machine, purely to ramp up profits for its investors?  this is sadly already with us.  i quit instagram solely because of all the ai stuff that was being relentlessly shilled on reels.  but it's also tiktok, youtube, facebook - all of them following the same blueprint.  any of these places are nothing more than a viable marketing platform for opportunists.  which is why i started gravitating towards places like this.

tl;dr human slop > ai slop <3

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

ai slop being fed into the maw of the internet machine, purely to ramp up profits for its investors?  this is sadly already with us.  i quit instagram solely because of all the ai stuff that was being relentlessly shilled on reels.  but it's also tiktok, youtube, facebook - all of them following the same blueprint.  any of these places are nothing more than a viable marketing platform for opportunists.  which is why i started gravitating towards places like this.

tl;dr human slop > ai slop <3

No, the ai slop hasnt been profitable at all for any of the companies involved. It's said Microsoft and OpenAI are set to lose billions of dollars, with OpenAI facing bankruptcy by 2027. Im saying that age verification might be being done because companies are trying to do everything they can to make this stuff useful. And also, quit being so uptight! If ai is making you depressed, thats the exact goal of ai marketers. I made a post about this on another thread: https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=5131.msg49623#msg49623

[goat]

If ai is making you depressed, thats the exact goal of ai marketers

lol i'm not in the least bit depressed.  though i am 100% disenfranchised with the direction the internet (and irl) is headed.  like if you go into any major supermarket now, or call up a financial provider, guaranteed you're straight through to an ai "representative".  just one of the many things re: modern life that grinds my gears on the regular.  i don't think i'm alone in that camp either tbh.  :3

[PurpleHello98]

From an optimistic, thinking-the-best-of-others perspective: surely there's got to be a better way to protect children, right?

From a pessimistic perspective: it feels like the Internet is on fire. Coming to the UK recently and being straight-up unable to access Spacehey really opened my eyes to what these laws actually mean. I'm lucky that my home state in America hasn't implemented them (at least not yet), but it's so scary to realize what this censorship can really mean for the small Web. I agree with keeping kids away from porn and other adult content, and I agree in principle with it being the parents' responsibilities (although a lot of people I know had bad parents growing up that didn't give two shits about them, so maybe some other prevention might be the responsible thing to do) but these laws are putting the Internet on track for doom.