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Yeah I’m wondering the same thing. I feel like this came out of nowhere, all at once. Before this I was only aware of a few instances of ID checks, like Utah a

• exasperaited 1y ago
  It didn't, quite. The UK has been trying various laws like this for a very long time, and nearly passed something massively more censorious nine years ago (IMO the OSA is not censorship) and then backed out. The OSA has actually already been law for about two years! It was just awaiting secondary legislation (statutory instruments) that Ofcom has been developing, in conjunction with industry. The web industry either knew or really if it was responsible and serious should have known this legislation was coming in 2025. Ofcom have not kept secrets. So if there is a co-ordinating entity, it's likely the porn industry itself and in particular Aylo/Mindgeek, who would very much like a situation where governments let them show porn to people they can sell things to, and who therefore stop using Visa and Mastercard as proxies. And, again, for clarity: the OSA does not require you give "ID" to any porn sites. Just that you verify your age via mechanisms that might include making a small credit card payment or visiting a link on your phone (since your phone will need to have been unblocked to view adult material, which is an industry standard parental control since on-device controls are often either non-existent, easily-circumvented or utterly confounding)