"Age verification has officially arrived in the UK thanks to the Online Safety Act (OSA), a UK law requiring online platforms to check that all UK-based users are at least eighteen years old before allowing them to access broad categories of “harmful” content that go far beyond graphic sexual content. EFF has extensively criticized the OSA for eroding privacy, chilling speech, and undermining the safety of the children it aims to protect. Now that it’s gone into effect, these countless problems have begun to reveal themselves, and the absurd, disastrous outcome illustrates why we must work to avoid this age-verified future at all costs.
Perhaps you’ve seen the memes as large platforms like Spotify and YouTube attempt to comply with the OSA, while smaller sites—like forums focused on parenting, green living, and gaming on Linux—either shut down or cease some operations rather than face massive fines for not following the law’s vague, expensive, and complicated rules and risk assessments.
But even Reddit, a site that prizes anonymity and has regularly demonstrated its commitment to digital rights, was doomed to fail in its attempt to comply with the OSA. Though Reddit is not alone in bowing to the UK mandates, it provides a perfect case study and a particularly instructive glimpse of what the age-verified future would look like if we don’t take steps to stop it."
#UK #AgeVerification #OSA #OnlineSafetyAct #Reddit #SocialMedia #Privacy #Surveillance
3 Comments
MichaelM@sciences.social · 1 pts · 1y
@remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
The biggest issue is the main SM companies. Something has to be done, and their algorithms are central to the problem. Efforts to limit child access have established reason, but what govs are doing is not the proper response. These companies will leverage that in order to gain even more strength.
Move attention away from killing the ban and towards targeting exploitative and harmful algorithms as an alternative.
remixtures@tldr.nettime.org · 1 pts · 1y
@MichaelM@sciences.social Countries shouldn't act as nanny states. Education is something to be left to the parents and to the school.
MichaelM@sciences.social · 2 pts · 1y
@remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
That's a mixed bag. Humans are by design gullible, shown by psychology and history. If there are no rules, people will be exploited en masse and norms will shift. Where to draw the line is the constant question, but leaving it up to individuals and the already burdened school system is a recipe for disaster. Again, it's not a question of whether or not to take action, it's that of what is the right action.