Pornography laws
Policing the digital red-light district: A think tank has called for the government to scrap its “ineffective” and “absurd” extreme pornography laws in a report.
The new study from the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) claims the laws can be used to incriminate thousands of innocent people, particularly gay men, and are a “blunt tool” for enforcing presumed moral values that are at odds with the “real sexual desires and practices” of Britons.
Obscenity laws need to be redrafted, starting with extreme pornography legislation, the ASI report argues.
Policing the digital red-light district: At present, the laws are so sweeping as to allow those who receive unsolicited images on WhatsApp groups to be charged with possession of extreme pornographic images.
Policing the digital red-light district
The state’s porn ID plans would lead to a credit card fraud boom
Policing the digital red-light district: Plans unveiled in 2017 would force every adult accessing pornography online to prove their age by handing over their credit card details.
Websites that don’t comply will be singled out by an as yet unappointed regulator and blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It’s part of a Tory manifesto pledge to make it “as hard for children to access violent and degrading pornography online as it is on the high street”.
Policing the digital red-light district: Children should be protected online, but this policy will do next to nothing to stop them from stumbling upon hardcore pornography on the internet. Worse still, it will lead to a surge in credit card fraud, it is claimed.
CREDIT CARD CHECKS FOR ONLINE PORN? BEEN THERE
Could lack of a credit card prevent children from accessing Internet pornography? Puzzled parents in Great Britain are about to find out…
- What is deemed harmful to 10-year-olds may not be harmful to 17-year-olds. Applying a single standard to all sub-18 children is too widely focused and hence violated free speech.
- Online age verification: There was “no evidence” that online age verification is reliable, given there is no way to prove that the information being entered belongs to the party requesting access.
- Privacy: Many things might happen to the card information being entered, none of them good.
- Limited protection: The proposed legislation only covers UK-based websites, effectively leaving a whole world of porn sites to harm impressionable kids.
Credit cards as no-brainer verification tools?
Under the well-intentioned new Digital Economy Act, United Kingdom-based commercial porn sites will – starting in April 2018 – be required to verify the age of their customers in order to prevent access to those under 18. Sites that fail to age-verify could face fines, lose their third-party payment service or be blocked by the watchdog.
Policing the digital red-light district:
Lawmakers suggest that commercial porn sites use the one system they already have in place – credit card acceptance – as the most logical verification tool because UK youths must typically be over 18 to apply for a card of their own. No card? No porn.
ALL porn sites will be forced to take your CREDIT CARD details from 2018 ‘to protect kids’
The aim is for all online porn to have age verification by April 2018.
It will be overseen by a new regulatory body, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said.
Will Gardner, chief executive of internet safety charity Childnet, said: “Protecting children from exposure to adult content is incredibly important, given the effect it can have on young people.
“Steps like this to help restrict access, alongside free parental controls and education, are key.
“It is essential to help parents and carers, as well as young people, be more aware of this risk and what they can do to prevent exposure and also to make sense of exposure if it happens.”
Policing the digital red-light district – consumer comments:
Doug McCleur: Six months to download as much free stuff as possible if you are not so tech savvy! Even if they implement this at an ISP level it will never work, VPN services allow you to pop up all over the place so they can’t tell which country you are in. Also, there are TOR browsers that will allow you to bypass security so it is doomed to fail from the very start. - Duncan Walker: A complete and utter waste of time, money and resources and will fail at the first. Any tech-savvy teenager will simply bypass this nonsense with a couple of clicks of their mouse in seconds. They will simply tell their computer to say it is in a country that doesn’t nanny its subjects like the UK tries and fails I might add, too! There isn’t a single MP in Parliament that understands how the internet and computers work in the real world as this bill shows… seems that parents have absolved themselves of all THEIR duty of care for the children THEY bring into this world and now leave everything to teachers, the police, the Government and now internet service providers to take care of their children.
Tommy Gee: This is an absurd idea. Data like this is gold dust to big corporations and fraudsters. Immediately, every site will be demanding card details to ‘comply with the law’ in case of an errant topless photo or swear word. They will accompany the demand with 3000 words of terms and conditions. After a month, you’ll be being billed for a subscription that was tucked away in the small print. They haven’t thought it through. Gambling websites take your card details, not just to verify your age but because you have to deposit to place a bet. I wonder what website managed to lobby this through. Colonel Mustard: I worry about such moves. It could lead to misuse of data. Wouldn’t it be easier to make parents take better control of the devices their offspring use and install “family filters” on them when purchasing? Donny Dee: Oh well, back to sticky pages on the top shelf mags it is then. Moon Knight: I’m guessing this is going to happen for freeview telly as well to stop the children watching programs like love Island? Chris Smith: And so the lockdown of the Internet continues. Heres an idea, why don’t the people who have kids TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM instead of the government forcing draconian poor quality restrictive legislation on the masses and pretending it’s for “child protection”. Next, you will need a license to use the Internet and have a camera permanently filming you and if you object cackling women on the telly will scream “think of the children!” Richard Mills: There are many apps out there that can bypass any blocks. I suppose they have to do something to justify their incredibly high wages. Sean Muldoon: This will not work you may get a few to agree but all the illegal sites out there and there are thousands you can’t get them all. Neil Asher: How many teenagers’s will temporarily “borrow” Mum or Dads card 4 a couple of minutes 2 type in the details? If the kid can get passed the “parental controls” block then getting passed the credit card block will be a doddle 4 them. Paul Matthews: Looks like kids will be watching p#orn & adults not stupid enough to hand over card details won’t…………shows you how bad censorship is in this country when you can’t say P O R N.