The latest changes, of which there have been many iterations, are generally well-intentioned but biased to those who have the ear of Government. Child safety ad

The latest changes, of which there have been many iterations, are generally well-intentioned but biased to those who have the ear of Government. Child safety advocates, celebrities, age-verification providers, newspaper publishers and Big Tech are the ones the many Ministers have listened to. The turnover of Ministers has been high but not those lobbying. Privacy and human rights advocates and innovators have not had a fair hearing. Child safety folks are happy for now, but naive. Celebrities are fountains of wisdom so that's all good. The age-verification and trust-washing industry are waiting for their payback. "Recognised" journalism gets protected. And Big Tech is all for it; compliance falls much hard on challengers. To be fair the dropping yesterday of the "legal but harmful" provisions for adults is finally showing there is some hope for sanity. Although paradoxically this will likely speed and increase the prevalence of a gated UK splinternet; as it will be become required to age-gate children across all (user-to-user and search) services.