The Great Internet Age Gate of 2025 (Online Safety Act)

[jaleit92]

Hi guys, I don't post here but have been following and learning, so sorry about that, but this seems worth of sharing and (forgive me if I'm wrong) it seems like people are unaware of this next development?

I’ve been seeing more and more people on YouTube raising concerns about the new ID requirements in the UK, and it’s gone much further than I initially thought it would. At the beginning, the policy applied only to social media to "protect the children". Pron (obviously), social media like facebook, reddit, bluesly, x, discord, dating apps (obviously again), but THEN: spotify, xbox, and search engines themselves now. And just what would be deemed as "unsafe" is another goalpost that they could shift. E.g. non mainstream media, oh thats "unsafe" sorry.

And in the UK, this comes with the creation of special police units to monitor anti immigrant sentiment online which means the same infrastructure is being used to keep tabs on who says what, now having their IDs uploaded. "Big Starmer" is watching them.

I’ve tried to warn folks here in Australia because it’s due to be rolled out in December but most people don’t even know it’s happening. Or when I mention it they look confused as if not wanting to hand over sensitive personal documents to unknown third party databases and having my identity attached to every search I make or thing I do online somehow makes me the bad guy.

I wonder what guidance the C’s may have given on this kind of development. Or how to respond to it.

 

[Jones]

Hello @jaleit92, welcome to the forum

I’ve tried to warn folks here in Australia because it’s due to be rolled out in December but most people don’t even know it’s happening. Or when I mention it they look confused as if not wanting to hand over sensitive personal documents to unknown third party databases and having my identity attached to every search I make or thing I do online somehow makes me the bad guy.

From what I understand so far, there's some wiggle room in the legislation so there may still be alternate ways around identifying yourself. No doubt some creative solutions might present themselves as time goes on. Wait and see I guess.

Since this is your first post on the forum, you are invited to write an introduction in the Newbies forum to tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way here.

 

[Honzap]

Well, form the legal perspective this will give governmental organizations grounds for possible legal actions. It is not first but one of the last pieces to the puzzle that has been in the making last 10 to 15 years.

Because all of the below and more is already known today:

your internet persona
your "anonymous" account/s
your computer fingerprint
your online behavior
your spending habits
your political support
your 2A stand
your...

 

[axj]

And just what would be deemed as "unsafe" is another goalpost that they could shift. E.g. non mainstream media, oh thats "unsafe" sorry.

The Internet provider blocks people from accessing "unsafe" websites unless you submit your ID to the provider?

I think that for now using a VPN that shows a different country to the websites should be a good workaround, as well as simply using websited that do not comply with this madness, eg. yandex.com for search.

 

[Seato]

Yes, the new legislation is troubling. People are now being pressured to provide proof of identity to certain internet sites a totally secure procedure that definitely is not going to lead to massive identity theft I am sure. So people have to get used to passing ever more personal data over to corporations and even if there are enough complaints about this specific issue it just allows the government to come in with its own ID system to save the day. Its seems to be quickly paving the way for digital ID system which the UK government is advocating for.
VPN’s can overcome this censorship for now. But now the companies have been pressured to process this identity age information these sites now have introduced the infrastructure needed to spread the process to other countries and for accessing other content in the future.

Note that the censorship currently applies to 18+ content. But of course this means that any website with any adult material present even if its ‘supposedly’ not its main focus such as reddit and discord have now built in this system. To be clear currently you only have to prove age for accessing the adult areas of these sites not merely to access them.

This is all happening in combination with pressure from payment processors to ban questionable adult games from the online game distributor Steam.

Bellular News covering the Steam Controversy

Valve No Longer Controls Steam

There is also a more naturally occurring controversy with the gaming platform Roblox (heavily marketed to young children) and its failures to protect its users from child predators and grooming.
Though the Roblox situation is terrible it seems likely to be used to further arguments for monitoring people online.

Video Covering the Roblox Scandal by Schlep whose attempts to expose predators on the platform started the current outrage.

Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen)

Whereas the UK and Steam censorship are getting a lot of pushback there is a lot of genuine support for legal action against Roblox because children are actual being endangered.
According to the Economic Times Roblox is currently banned in Turkey, Oman, Qatar, and China in response to these accusations.

 

[jaleit92]

Hello @jaleit92, welcome to the forum



From what I understand so far, there's some wiggle room in the legislation so there may still be alternate ways around identifying yourself. No doubt some creative solutions might present themselves as time goes on. Wait and see I guess.

Since this is your first post on the forum, you are invited to write an introduction in the Newbies forum to tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way here.

Thanks, happy to be here! For sanity's sake. I will make a post in the newbie section as well.

 

[jaleit92]

The Internet provider blocks people from accessing "unsafe" websites unless you submit your ID to the provider?

I think that for now using a VPN that shows a different country to the websites should be a good workaround, as well as simply using websited that do not comply with this madness, eg. yandex.com for search.

Yandex is a good option, I hardly have problems with them when searching. Less AI spam too I think.

I'm not sur about VPNs, I think UK may try to ban them too. And eventually, if most countries adopt this ID thing, then there won't be many countries to VPN to... but for now yeah it's what we got.

 

[jaleit92]

Yes, the new legislation is troubling. People are now being pressured to provide proof of identity to certain internet sites a totally secure procedure that definitely is not going to lead to massive identity theft I am sure. So people have to get used to passing ever more personal data over to corporations and even if there are enough complaints about this specific issue it just allows the government to come in with its own ID system to save the day. Its seems to be quickly paving the way for digital ID system which the UK government is advocating for.
VPN’s can overcome this censorship for now. But now the companies have been pressured to process this identity age information these sites now have introduced the infrastructure needed to spread the process to other countries and for accessing other content in the future.

Note that the censorship currently applies to 18+ content. But of course this means that any website with any adult material present even if its ‘supposedly’ not its main focus such as reddit and discord have now built in this system. To be clear currently you only have to prove age for accessing the adult areas of these sites not merely to access them.

This is all happening in combination with pressure from payment processors to ban questionable adult games from the online game distributor Steam.

There is also a more naturally occurring controversy with the gaming platform Roblox (heavily marketed to young children) and its failures to protect its users from child predators and grooming.
Though the Roblox situation is terrible it seems likely to be used to further arguments for monitoring people online.

Whereas the UK and Steam censorship are getting a lot of pushback there is a lot of genuine support for legal action against Roblox because children are actual being endangered.
According to the Economic Times Roblox is currently banned in Turkey, Oman, Qatar, and China in response to these accusations.

I've just seen this Roblox thing yesterday! What a funny timing coincidence. It seems all of these issues are being uncovered at the same time. As well at the payment processor debacle, where they were refusing to pay for certain... games lol. There also seems to be talk of putting backdoors into encrypted messaging apps, essentially ruining the whole point of encryption.

 

[Third_Density_Resident]

Hi jaleit92, I am glad you raised this issue. As someone who also resides in Australia, it concerns me greatly too. There will be several possible workarounds in the short-term which you already alluded to, but the concern is what will happen further down the track. Then again, this is yet another sign of the desperation of the powers-that-be to control as many as possible ahead of the imminent Wave, so maybe we need only concern ourselves with short-term solutions.