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There was a thread about this yesterday [0], this is almost certainly not going to happen. I think based on the number of times they have tried to legislate for

There was a thread about this yesterday [0], this is almost certainly not going to happen. I think based on the number of times they have tried to legislate for this, most recently in 2019, I would put the odds of it happening (even in a hamstrung way) at less than 10%. Big company’s (Facebook, etc) will lobby against it, they will argue about what the threshold of requirement is. Then there is the logistics, privacy, security and cost factors. Not going to happen. I believe this is all about making it look like politicians are doing “something” without actually doing anything. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256984 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30256984

toyg 5y ago
The fact they keep trying despite repeatedly being humiliated by market realities, though, indicates the lobbying pressure by pro-censorship groups is quite high. This is bound to produce something eventually.
- anomie 5y ago
  Are they being humiliated though? Feels like they get lots of press when announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate, then when the whole thing gets abandoned it happens with almost no attention. The current government seems to be well aware that most of the time announcing a policy has a much higher ROI than actually implementing one (cf all the times pre-existing spending commitments get recycled in new announcements)
  - shapefrog 5y ago
    > announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate I really dont see anyone in the electorate clamouring for any of this stuff. Announcing the same policy being told it is a shit idea and announcing it again 6 months later is much harder to sell than the recycled spending (which they tend to just lie and say it is in addition to the last lot they announced anyway). That said, the electorate dont actually care much (unless it is a penny off the price of a pint or something) so it is hardly a humiliation when these ideas go nowhere and it makes the government look busy. I can only assume that the driver is the security services, or just recycling past homework to look busy. As noted in many other comments they try all sorts of seemingly stupid ideas in this space - banning all encryption has failed countless times, adult verification is already a thing on mobile networks, and logging every online activity has slipped through and passed.
  - toyg 5y ago
    But you can only perform this act so much before it wears out and backfires. See for example the recent defections of "red wall" Tory MPs after the announcements you mention - they know the situation is becoming indefensible in the eyes of their electorate, since they keep promising money which then fails to materialize. Have they reached this point with the "online moral-indignation brigade" yet? Maybe not, but it's been 5 years since the Snoopers' Charter, I don't know how many since the porn-blocking promises and about 13 since the first pledges in this area by a Conservative party, with no significant progress to show for it. That's a lot of time even in political terms.
  - hardlianotion 5y ago
    If you say you're going to do this often enough, and keep getting thwarted for whatever reason, eventually you won't have much credibility with anyone.
    - colejohnson66 5y ago
      Unless your constituents want this. In the US, humiliation from other districts doesn't mean anything as long as you keep being voted in.
iqanq 5y ago
It happened in the EU. Why wouldn't it happen in the UK?
- viraptor 5y ago
  What happened in the EU? You don't need a credit card to access porn or Facebook in the EU.
  - iqanq 5y ago
    You need a credit card to watch age-restricted videos on YouTube.
    - kmlx 5y ago
      is this true? did not know this…
      - efdee 5y ago
        Absolutely not.
        hogepiyo 5y ago
        Google's support page says otherwise https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10070779?hl=en-GB#zippy=%2Cif-youre-in-the-european-union-eu-european-economic-area-eea-switzerland-or-the-united-kingdom https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10070779?hl=en-GB#...
        hyperman1 5y ago
        This says ...or a valid id.... ,which is a lot more common than a credit card. Credit cards in the EU are not very prominent as a payment method, mostly for paying USA companies.
        5y ago

toyg 5y ago

The fact they keep trying despite repeatedly being humiliated by market realities, though, indicates the lobbying pressure by pro-censorship groups is quite high. This is bound to produce something eventually.

anomie 5y ago
Are they being humiliated though? Feels like they get lots of press when announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate, then when the whole thing gets abandoned it happens with almost no attention. The current government seems to be well aware that most of the time announcing a policy has a much higher ROI than actually implementing one (cf all the times pre-existing spending commitments get recycled in new announcements)
- shapefrog 5y ago
  > announcing this kind of stuff which sits well with some target part of the electorate I really dont see anyone in the electorate clamouring for any of this stuff. Announcing the same policy being told it is a shit idea and announcing it again 6 months later is much harder to sell than the recycled spending (which they tend to just lie and say it is in addition to the last lot they announced anyway). That said, the electorate dont actually care much (unless it is a penny off the price of a pint or something) so it is hardly a humiliation when these ideas go nowhere and it makes the government look busy. I can only assume that the driver is the security services, or just recycling past homework to look busy. As noted in many other comments they try all sorts of seemingly stupid ideas in this space - banning all encryption has failed countless times, adult verification is already a thing on mobile networks, and logging every online activity has slipped through and passed.
- toyg 5y ago
  But you can only perform this act so much before it wears out and backfires. See for example the recent defections of "red wall" Tory MPs after the announcements you mention - they know the situation is becoming indefensible in the eyes of their electorate, since they keep promising money which then fails to materialize. Have they reached this point with the "online moral-indignation brigade" yet? Maybe not, but it's been 5 years since the Snoopers' Charter, I don't know how many since the porn-blocking promises and about 13 since the first pledges in this area by a Conservative party, with no significant progress to show for it. That's a lot of time even in political terms.
- hardlianotion 5y ago
  If you say you're going to do this often enough, and keep getting thwarted for whatever reason, eventually you won't have much credibility with anyone.
  - colejohnson66 5y ago
    Unless your constituents want this. In the US, humiliation from other districts doesn't mean anything as long as you keep being voted in.

iqanq 5y ago

It happened in the EU. Why wouldn't it happen in the UK?

viraptor 5y ago
What happened in the EU? You don't need a credit card to access porn or Facebook in the EU.
- iqanq 5y ago
  You need a credit card to watch age-restricted videos on YouTube.
  - kmlx 5y ago
    is this true? did not know this…
    - efdee 5y ago
      Absolutely not.
      - hogepiyo 5y ago
        Google's support page says otherwise https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10070779?hl=en-GB#zippy=%2Cif-youre-in-the-european-union-eu-european-economic-area-eea-switzerland-or-the-united-kingdom https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10070779?hl=en-GB#...
        hyperman1 5y ago
        This says ...or a valid id.... ,which is a lot more common than a credit card. Credit cards in the EU are not very prominent as a payment method, mostly for paying USA companies.
        5y ago