Age verification

RumRat

Most of the sites are not going to worry about VPN access as they can possibly claim plausible deniability. At they end of the day they want the traffic.

Vitor

Easy to imagine peeps creating a separate profile in Edge and loading a VPN browser extension such as Windscribe VPN or Proton VPN so there's no unfortunate situations when using the main Edge profile. ALso handy in airports, coffee shops etc. where the WiFi could be compromised.

Cornucopia

What about the built-in VPN in the Opera Browser?

Newcad

Just for more info here is the BBCs analysis:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k81lj8nvpo

I am a forum moderator elsewhere, so tomorrow when things have settled a bit I will be trying some of the known but more obscure adult sites to see what is actually happening.

TBH adult site spam has not been a problem on fora for a number of years now (because they had no need to 'advertise' by spamming?)

I suspect that with these new age-verificaton measures we moderators will soon have a lot of new adult site spam to deal with.

PS. I'm using the words 'adult site' because the 'p' word is blocked here and replaced with !!!!!.

tghe-retford

MyRealNameToo said:

tghe-retford said:

The problem with VPN's is that they're just a stop gap solution as every country either outright bans content or implements the same or greater laws. Such as ID for speech (effectively no ID, no Internet) that Mississippi just passed but is currently subject to a request to suspend it. Or the requirement for age verification to view YouTube and social media in Australia by December. Or its ban on social media for under 16's. 

From what I understand, Cloudflare have managed to identify anyone within the UK using a VPN regardless of country setting and intend to block 200 illegal websites regardless of whether you're using a VPN or not. So potentially the "VPN problem" for Ofcom may soon be solved. Technically websites are not allowed to promote VPN's from today. 

Any indication of how Cloudflare have claimed to do it, or even a link where they say they can?

Even with a VPN something accessed via a webbrowser will expose various localisation factors potentially (time, language (en-gb) etc) however its a certain leap of faith as my computer would say its 13:18 and I use en-GB irrespective of if I am in London or Lisbon (I dont suddenly start reading in Portuguese just because I am on holiday). It would be very crude if thats all they are relying on. 

Presumably the not promoting VPN from today is explicitly in relation to circumventing age protection controls? Everyone is still promoting VPNs for other legitimate reasons etc. 

Cloudflare didn't go into specifics in the reporting I have seen (I guess they don't want anyone figuring out how they did it and then circumventing it) but it appears they have finally cracked the issue of identifying where a user is from, regardless of which country a VPN is set to, and can implement blocking as per a court order to services that used their services.

Whether that is used in a widespread manner to block UK users from websites beyond those 200 illegal websites isn't known yet.

victor2

molerat said:

I have just been to a site that required age verification, clicked the VPN and site opened as normal.  Just as well VPNs are beyond the scope of the average 13 year old to understand 

Put a bunch of "locked down" computers in a youth club for under 16s and see what mayhem they can create in no time...

strawb_shortcake

After reading about this earlier, I tried an adult website and didn't need to enter any age verification, I did go via incognito mode

ETA a more popular website does ask for it, however the first site has a rather long blog about their views on it - spoiler they don't agree with it

molerat

It will simply stop sensible adults from visiting the sites but set a challenge to the demographic they want to stop.

Grumpy_chap

Newcad said:

tomorrow when things have settled a bit I will be trying some of the known but more obscure adult sites to see what is actually happening.

strawb_shortcake said:

After reading about this earlier, I tried an adult website and didn't need to enter any age verification, I did go via incognito mode

I assume the intention of this change was not to drive traffic (of people of any age) to the adult sites just to try.

Ergates

Newcad said:

Once it starts where does it stop? How long before you have to age-verify to stream movies? I'm not talking adult films but blockbuster movies.

Firstly, you already do.  All legitimate streaming sites require subscription, which requires a credit card, which requires you to be 18. They don't need you to prove you're old enough to watch any particular TV program or film because to have the service you already need to be old enough to watch all of them.

They expect you to manage who has access to your subscription yourselves - which is the same as these sites requiring age-verification.

Obviously non-legitimate streaming sites/services don't care, because they already don't care about the law.

Secondly, I don't really see how "Big brother" fits into this change. These same requirements are already in place for the consumption of such media (and other age-restricted things) from any other sources.   If you want to go see an 18 rated film at the cinema, or buy the same film on DVD, you can be asked to prove your age.   Ditto to buy alcohol, tobacco or "special interest" magazines from a shop.    The only difference here is that for a few years there were no restrictions on accessing "adult material" on the internet.   If there had been a loophole in the law that allowed 12 year olds to buy booze online, and the government were now closing it, I doubt anybody would be yelling "Big Brother!" about it.