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If the UK orders a Wikipedia block to its ISPs, it would be a good thing, to raise public awareness of the OSA. Wikipedia should do nothing and wait.

by cft 1y ago

graemep 1y ago
Which is why they will not do it. Nothing popular will be blocked or shut down.
- corndoge 1y ago
  Porn is popular!
  - graemep 1y ago
    True, but its not going to get blocked. AFAIK all the big porn sites are happily implementing age verification. Why not? Its an excuse to gather data, to increase numbers of registered users or some other form of tracking, and to raise a barrier to entry to smaller competitors. Other aspects of the OSA have similar effects on other types of sites such as forums vs social media.
    - vidarh 1y ago
      Some are not, an ironically, Ofcom's website now provides a handy list of websites you can visit without age verification (in their list of companies they are investigating)
    - IshKebab 1y ago
      > Why not? Because only 10% of visitors actually do it. It might not be as bad as this because probably anyone who was actually going to pay for the porn would be ok with giving them their credit card number anyway. Bad for advertising income though.
    - filoleg 1y ago
      > AFAIK all the big porn sites are happily implementing age verification I don’t know what you had in mind by “big porn sites”, but the biggest one I know of (Pornhub) is not doing that. They decided to voluntarily withdraw from the US markets where age verification became required (TX, GA, etc.), and wrote a pretty good blog post explaining their rationale (which revolved around the idea that letting third parties to just receive and process ID documents just so that users could watch porn was both not secure at all and absurd).
      - wrboyce 1y ago
        I just tried to visit pornhub and was prompted to verify my age. > Please verify your age > > To continue, we are required to verify that you are 18 or older, in line with the UK Online Safety Act. > To view your verification options, please visit our Age Verification Page. As part of this process, you will be asked to create a new account on Pornhub - this will automatically create a new account on AllpassTrust as well. > By proceeding, you acknowledge and agree to Pornhub’s and AllpassTrust’s Privacy Νotices and Pornhub’s and AllpassTrust’s Terms & Conditions. > Pornhub is dedicated to developing state-of-the-art security features to protect its community. Pornhub is fully RTA compliant, which means that devices with appropriately configured parental controls will block access to our content. We encourage all platforms in the adult industry to use this technology, along with all available safety and security protocols. We also recommend that all parents and guardians use technology to prevent their children from accessing content not intended for minors. > Our parental controls page explains how you can easily block access to this site.
  - IshKebab 1y ago
    Only privately though. No politician is going to admit to watching porn. Any campaign to save porn isn't going to attract many public supporters.
    - DonaldFisk 1y ago
      https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watching-porn-in-commons-to-resign-after-being-told-position-untenable-12602430 https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watchin... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12535038 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12535038
      - IshKebab 1y ago
        Neither of those are relevant. One watched porn at work. Another had her husband expense his porn. And they were both caught rather than admitting it. We're talking about just watching porn in private, normally. Find me an MP that admits to that.
    - graemep 1y ago
      Not many people are going to say this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yIlGlUZac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yIlGlUZac
- jadamson 1y ago
  I'm no longer convinced that nothing popular will be shut down, assuming that includes voluntarily withdrawing from the UK market. A couple of days ago, this popped up: > The Science Department, which oversees the legislation, told companies they could face fines if they failed to uphold free speech rules. > A spokesman said: “As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression. > “Failure to meet either obligation can lead to severe penalties, including fines of up to 10 per cent of global revenue or £18m, whichever is greater. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/09/social-media-giants-face-fines-overzealous-free-speech/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/09/social-media... They seem to be putting social media platforms between a rock and a hard place, particularly as political debate in the UK is starting to heat up somewhat. I suppose the best to hope for at this point is that fines for infringing free expression never materialize.
DonaldFisk 1y ago
From about ten years ago, ISPs were required to block web sites which were unsuitable for children by default. Any ISP's customer (the person paying for internet access, who would therefore be over 18) could ask for the block to be removed. Requiring individual web sites to block access was unnecessary if the intention was to prevent children accessing those sites.
- nonethewiser 1y ago
  >Requiring individual web sites to block access was unnecessary if the intention was to prevent children accessing those sites. Hmm. So Reddit, Youtube, etc. would be blocked by ISPs by default?
- jacobgkau 1y ago
  My understanding is that the default "block" just worked through the ISP's DNS servers. So that only works if the parents know to restrict the ability of their kids to change their DNS servers on their local devices (which is not set up by default) and the kids don't know how to get around it.

If the UK orders a Wikipedia block to its ISPs, it would be a good thing, to raise public awareness of the OSA. Wikipedia should do nothing and wait.

by cft 1y ago

If the UK orders a Wikipedia block to its ISPs, it would be a good thing, to raise public awareness of the OSA. Wikipedia should do nothing and wait.

graemep 1y ago

Which is why they will not do it. Nothing popular will be blocked or shut down.

corndoge 1y ago
Porn is popular!
- graemep 1y ago
  True, but its not going to get blocked. AFAIK all the big porn sites are happily implementing age verification. Why not? Its an excuse to gather data, to increase numbers of registered users or some other form of tracking, and to raise a barrier to entry to smaller competitors. Other aspects of the OSA have similar effects on other types of sites such as forums vs social media.
  - vidarh 1y ago
    Some are not, an ironically, Ofcom's website now provides a handy list of websites you can visit without age verification (in their list of companies they are investigating)
  - IshKebab 1y ago
    > Why not? Because only 10% of visitors actually do it. It might not be as bad as this because probably anyone who was actually going to pay for the porn would be ok with giving them their credit card number anyway. Bad for advertising income though.
  - filoleg 1y ago
    > AFAIK all the big porn sites are happily implementing age verification I don’t know what you had in mind by “big porn sites”, but the biggest one I know of (Pornhub) is not doing that. They decided to voluntarily withdraw from the US markets where age verification became required (TX, GA, etc.), and wrote a pretty good blog post explaining their rationale (which revolved around the idea that letting third parties to just receive and process ID documents just so that users could watch porn was both not secure at all and absurd).
    - wrboyce 1y ago
      I just tried to visit pornhub and was prompted to verify my age. > Please verify your age > > To continue, we are required to verify that you are 18 or older, in line with the UK Online Safety Act. > To view your verification options, please visit our Age Verification Page. As part of this process, you will be asked to create a new account on Pornhub - this will automatically create a new account on AllpassTrust as well. > By proceeding, you acknowledge and agree to Pornhub’s and AllpassTrust’s Privacy Νotices and Pornhub’s and AllpassTrust’s Terms & Conditions. > Pornhub is dedicated to developing state-of-the-art security features to protect its community. Pornhub is fully RTA compliant, which means that devices with appropriately configured parental controls will block access to our content. We encourage all platforms in the adult industry to use this technology, along with all available safety and security protocols. We also recommend that all parents and guardians use technology to prevent their children from accessing content not intended for minors. > Our parental controls page explains how you can easily block access to this site.
- IshKebab 1y ago
  Only privately though. No politician is going to admit to watching porn. Any campaign to save porn isn't going to attract many public supporters.
  - DonaldFisk 1y ago
    https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watching-porn-in-commons-to-resign-after-being-told-position-untenable-12602430 https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watchin... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12535038 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12535038
    - IshKebab 1y ago
      Neither of those are relevant. One watched porn at work. Another had her husband expense his porn. And they were both caught rather than admitting it. We're talking about just watching porn in private, normally. Find me an MP that admits to that.
  - graemep 1y ago
    Not many people are going to say this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yIlGlUZac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yIlGlUZac
jadamson 1y ago
I'm no longer convinced that nothing popular will be shut down, assuming that includes voluntarily withdrawing from the UK market. A couple of days ago, this popped up: > The Science Department, which oversees the legislation, told companies they could face fines if they failed to uphold free speech rules. > A spokesman said: “As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression. > “Failure to meet either obligation can lead to severe penalties, including fines of up to 10 per cent of global revenue or £18m, whichever is greater. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/09/social-media-giants-face-fines-overzealous-free-speech/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/09/social-media... They seem to be putting social media platforms between a rock and a hard place, particularly as political debate in the UK is starting to heat up somewhat. I suppose the best to hope for at this point is that fines for infringing free expression never materialize.

DonaldFisk 1y ago

From about ten years ago, ISPs were required to block web sites which were unsuitable for children by default. Any ISP's customer (the person paying for internet access, who would therefore be over 18) could ask for the block to be removed. Requiring individual web sites to block access was unnecessary if the intention was to prevent children accessing those sites.

nonethewiser 1y ago
>Requiring individual web sites to block access was unnecessary if the intention was to prevent children accessing those sites. Hmm. So Reddit, Youtube, etc. would be blocked by ISPs by default?
jacobgkau 1y ago
My understanding is that the default "block" just worked through the ISP's DNS servers. So that only works if the parents know to restrict the ability of their kids to change their DNS servers on their local devices (which is not set up by default) and the kids don't know how to get around it.