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submitted 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

By 25 July, all sites and apps that allow pornography – whether they are dedicated adult sites or social media, search or gaming services – must use highly effective age checks to ensure children are not normally able to encounter it. Online firms who publish their own pornography are already required to protect children from it, and thousands of sites have already introduced robust age checks in response. 

Major porn providers operating in the UK have confirmed to Ofcom that they will introduce effective checks by next month’s deadline in order to comply with the new rules. They include PornHub, the most-visited pornographic service in the UK. Other services who are happy to be named at this stage include BoyfriendTV, Cam4, FrolicMe, inxxx, Jerkmate, LiveHDCams, MyDirtyHobby, RedTube, Streamate, Stripchat, Tube8, and YouPorn. This represents a broad range of pornography services accessed in the UK.

Monitoring compliance with these new duties is a priority for Ofcom. If any company fails to comply with its new duties, Ofcom can impose fines and – in very serious cases – apply for a court order to prevent the site or app from being available in the UK. As part of our work enforcing the Online Safety Act, we have already launched investigations into four porn providers and won’t hesitate to take further action from July.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

I wonder what a fake beard or mustache does as far as fooling the machine goes?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Do we know how the age verification process is gonna work or is this gonna be one of those neoliberal dystopian spystate kinda deals where the means of data collection is left to corporations only to be subsequently tapped by the state when the want to target individuals?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 46 minutes ago* (last edited 44 minutes ago)

Well it's been monitored by ofcom who we all know are the last word in inefficiency, corruption, and stupidity so I'm going to go ahead and guess that they're just going to say they're doing checks, and Ofcom just not going to check.

They're probably going to add a second pop-up after the "are you 18" pop-up that says "are you lying".

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

So all of the mainstream porn will be blocked, leaving all of the niche and special-interest stuff available? Excellent, excellent...

[-] [email protected] 2 points 44 minutes ago

Interestingly there are noticeable absences from that list.

Perhaps that's by design, there's no reason the politicians would make their own lives more difficult.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 11 hours ago

If UK really wanted to protect the kids, they would've jailed Transphobe JK Rowings for hate crime

[-] [email protected] 1 points 21 minutes ago

The UK is transphobic too though.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Oh no. Some hackers hacked out database and released all the ID information on high profile people. Oh such whoopsie, we made.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 43 minutes ago

I'm sure the most rigorous of data safety standards will be followed. After all they're being forced to do this I'm sure they won't take the cheapest possible route. Oh definitely not.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

I seriously feel this. I've found a little site that dgaf what country or state you're in. I use a VPN if I want a change.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Depends entirely on how it's implemented, because the website doesn't need to know who you are, only verify that you are over 18. Which can be done reasonably securely - you generate a random ID on a secure service (e.g here in Finland, we use our online banking stuff for official verification purposes), give that ID to the website, and the only communication between the two of them is "Is id 123 valid and an adult? Yes/No".

Now, if that "secure service", most likely a government contract done as cheaply as possible turns out not to be, and they keep logs linking those IDs to the URLs requesting verification, then the entire thing goes belly up.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

So your bank now knows you accessed certain websites. And likely one or more middleware services. And you are okay with that?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Was an example of the security, not who is running the service. But I mean, guess who knows if you pay for OnlyFans or stuff like that?
Your bank.

And like I said, it's only really secure if the service doesn't keep a database of logs connecting the two.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 39 minutes ago

The bank doesn't know what people pay for, or who it goes to, they just know what account you paid into. They would have to go through and verify who owns the account and that's not an automatic process. Finding out the actual person or company behind an account requires effort, so unless there's some investigation that involves that bank account, they won't have that information.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 11 hours ago

Garbage. This info will be weaponized by anyone who is willing to buy it.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago

Absolutely. Super easy to use this in blackmail. Especially in a country as repressed as the UK.

[-] [email protected] 47 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

“PrOtEcT ThE ChiLdReN! 👆🏻🥴”

I can not hear that anymore!

Children need awareness not shielding, concealment and tabooing.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago

silver lining, the kinks of the future are gonna be sooo fucked up.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

"I showed you my elbow, pls respond 🥺"

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[-] [email protected] -5 points 6 hours ago

People are not gonna agree with me but, it makes sense to have age verification just like you have to verify your age for tobacco or alcohol.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

Is there a paper linking gooning to cancer, why would you compare those things

[-] [email protected] 1 points 28 minutes ago

I love this comment. Thank you!

[-] [email protected] -1 points 1 hour ago

I don’t agree with him, but there are certainly health issues stemming from porn consumption.
Be it ed, or a mental health issue.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 23 minutes ago

My mental health is going to be equally fucked with or without porn. As for ED, I'm the only person I need to please so as the Aussies say; she'll be right.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

In what world is that risk comparable to cigarettes?

Even comparing it to junk food is a stretch, and nobody suggests we put age verification on chips.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 hours ago

Would it make sense for alcohol age verification if every household had beer taps installed? Because thats what internet is.

[-] [email protected] -3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Its certainly the parents responsibility to make sure those kids dont drink. And if they do, there should be repercussions just like we have the same expectations with Gun use.

But it's disanalgous anyways. We make stores and establishments check for IDs. These websites are no different from these establishments, therefore they should also verify the age.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Its disingenuous to compare information flow to physical markets. They're not the same thing.

[-] [email protected] -3 points 2 hours ago

Yeah porn is definitely just "information flow", there's nothing beyond it and it can't affect minor individuals. Really? That's not disingenuous? So online gambling shouldn't be age restricted? There's no "physical" aspect to it.

Oh let's not forget, it certainly doesn't objectify women.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

I mean it literally is just information flow - no? Doesn't mean it can't be harmful or dangerous but thats what it is and you equating to actions like gambling just show how's actually ignorant you are being here. Have a good day and don't reply to me thanks.

[-] [email protected] 57 points 20 hours ago

mastodon has porn and you don't even need an account to use search. also, this will just drive people to use sketchy sites that won't follow the rules.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 hours ago

You can literally find porn on search engines. Google images is a bit restrictive but Bing, Duckduckgo etc will straight up show porn in the image or video searches.

[-] [email protected] 99 points 23 hours ago

This feel strangely like it has little to do with actually protecting kids...

[-] [email protected] 90 points 22 hours ago

It's more about penetrating your privacy but think of the children is the go-to argument to sugar-coat that.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 22 hours ago

Someone should be asking what the sentence will be for kids who commit identity fraud and use someone else's ID to set up an account. It may flip the narrative to point out they are intentionally creating more criminal acts that will get kids in trouble with the law and possibly ruin lives.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 19 hours ago

It's about making LGBTQ content "adult only" and using this same mechanism to enforce ID law on that content. They've been doing it in some USA states for a few years now. No one wants to be the Porn Politician that votes against it.

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[-] [email protected] 44 points 20 hours ago

If your kid has half a brain he'll do what we did as kids when porn sites were blocked on the home WiFi: He'll just get a VPN.

And when VPN websites were blocked on the home WiFi, we'd just download their apps on mobile data.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Better to educate your kids on their natural urges and letting them use the more moderated sites than have them go down the more dodgy rabbitholes. No kink shaming but some of the things people do are nasty.

[-] [email protected] 54 points 21 hours ago

I'm disappointed that Pornhub is apparently capitulating instead of blocking access entirely in protest, like they've done in other jurisdictions.

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[-] [email protected] 34 points 20 hours ago

VPN subs will be up and UK viewership will be nonexistent

[-] [email protected] 37 points 22 hours ago

So people too young or too privacy conscious to use those major platforms will move to nicher porn sites. Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all... /s

[-] [email protected] 18 points 20 hours ago

Are they going to add a box to enter your age like on Steam that you immediately roll back to 1st January 1901?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

6/9/1969....every time

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 22 hours ago

don't the uk have a history of straight up putting porn in print magazines and on free television every day?

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this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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