Forum: Author Hangout

Age Verification On SOL? (OT)

awnlee jawking 🚫

The UK government seems determined to press ahead with a law requiring age verification to access porn sites. Previously SOL would have been fine because the government doesn't consider that words constitute pornography. But now that SOL allows illustrated stories, that's no longer true. The UK government considers even cartoon images to be potentially pornographic, so drawn images and AI-generated art won't be exempt.

I don't know how the law would work, or what it's reach and enforceability would be like, but it must be worrying times for UK-based SOL authors and readers. :-(

AJ

Replies: Keet Gauthier Dicrostonyx solreader50

Keet 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Use a VPN or the SOL proxy or anonymous service.

Gauthier 🚫

@awnlee jawking

It will only apply to a web site if there are a significant (to be specified by a later law) number of users.

The UK law just say "harmful content", not image.

There is already a "Cover Up Images In Story Text" functionality that also prevent image preload.
If the law really only target images, it's probably easier to implement a variant of that than a real age verification.

There is a internet draft standard to implement age verification:

https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-private-access-tokens-01.html

In my opinion, it's totally inappropriate as the Mediator know way too much information.

I guess the overpriced company championed by the UK (Yoti) implement a variant of that.

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@awnlee jawking

It's not like the UK is the first country to try to limit access to the internet, and they're going to run into the same issues that other countries have faced.

While it is true that they can apply their laws to companies that do business in the UK, UK citizens visiting internet sites that are owned and operated in different countries doesn't fall under that.

The only way the UK will be able to enforce a law like this on adult sites that are not based in the UK will be to firewall the hell out of their own country, limiting what their citizens can connect to internationally. You know, the way that North Korea and China have done.

Honestly I think it's going to be a non-starter even if the law does get passed. There's no way the UK government has the money to enforce this on a large scale, not to mention the various legal challenges on the issue.

Replies: Keet awnlee jawking helmut_meukel

Keet 🚫

@Dicrostonyx

There's no way the UK government has the money to enforce this on a large scale, not to mention the various legal challenges on the issue.

They will have to outlaw or control VPN use too. Not going to happen.

Replies: Michael Loucks

Michael Loucks 🚫

@Keet

They will have to outlaw or control VPN use too. Not going to happen.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Countries have already done so.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@Michael Loucks

They will have to outlaw or control VPN use too. Not going to happen.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Countries have already done so.

Sure, China, North Korea. If that happens in the modern western world we have much bigger problems than a VPN block.

Replies: Michael Loucks Marc Nobbs

Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

Sure, China, North Korea

It's far more than that. Countries that currently of have blocked or heavily restricted VPN usage:

North Korea
Iraq
China
Russia
Belarus
United Arab Emerites
Egypt
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Oman
Iran
Myanmar
Pakistan
Venezuela
India

Granted, no Western democracies, but given proposals from various governments to break encryption, all bets are off.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Michael Loucks

It's far more than that.

Let's hope Lebanon stays off that list.

Replies: Michael Loucks Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Michael Loucks 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Let's hope Lebanon stays off that list.

Amen to that.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

Let's hope Lebanon stays off that list.

I don't need a VPN to manage things. I use one because it makes security easier, but to really manage all the sites, I have a domain that is completely innocuous. The domain has a site on it that has nothing to do with stories or books or adult stuff. It's well visited by people and nobody has any idea that it's a front for managing storiesonline and the other sites related to it. I simply use an unlisted directory on that domain, log in and manage all the sites.

Any country can block any of my apparent sites, even all of them and I would still be able to manage them all. Learned that lesson back in 2005.

The only time I can't is when there is no internet whatsoever.

Replies: Paladin_HGWT

Paladin_HGWT 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Brilliant!

Marc Nobbs 🚫

@Keet

There are members of the governing party who want to pull us out of the ECHR and pretty much every other international treaty that "restricts" their "Sovereignty".

Trust me - restricting access to the internet wouldn't be an issue for these folks.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dicrostonyx

I hope you're right.

The problem is that an unpopular government, in its death throes, is thrashing around with ill-thought-out populist measures rather than tackling real issues like the UK's abysmal care system, and that's a fraught situation. For example, one measure means that kids currently 14 and under will never in their lifetimes be allowed to buy cigarettes.

AJ

Replies: Michael Loucks

Michael Loucks 🚫

@awnlee jawking

The problem is that an unpopular government, in its death throes, is thrashing around with ill-thought-out populist measures rather than tackling real issues

It's not just 'unpopular' governments in 'death throes'. There is a global movement to censor/restrict, even in so-called 'enlightened' countries.

helmut_meukel 🚫
Updated:

@Dicrostonyx

the way that North Korea and China have done.

AFAIK, in both cases there were only a few physical connections from their countries (internal) net to the world wide net. Those connections could be easily controlled and blocked. In case of North Korea the user community was small, few people there could afford internet access and the necessary hardware is still hard to get by common people.

Try something like this in the closely meshed western world.
Too many trunk lines into other countries, nearly all not owned or tightly controlled by the state authorities.

I live in Germany and to access a web site of a German company the connection via US servers is often faster than using an inner-country connection. (This is assuming their site is hosted in Germany. Many are not.)

Then there is the immense traffic that has to be controlled by hard- and software. You can't do this without slowing down the traffic tremendously.

Do you really believe any western government can do this without getting thrown out?

HM.
(edited 2 typos)

Replies: Michael Loucks

Michael Loucks 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Do you really believe any western government can do this without getting thrown out?

Yes, because the 'think of the children' crowd will stop at nothing to enforce their will. Age verification, EU Mandated Browser Root Certificates, encryption backdoors, hate crime laws, mandatory ISP filters, corporate liability for user content, etc, etc.

Multiple paths don't help you if the domain is seized and any 'offending' IPs are nullrouted.

solreader50 🚫

@awnlee jawking

The UK government seems determined to press ahead

The UK has a government??? News to me.

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Forum: Author Hangout

Age Verification On SOL? (OT)

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