Online Safety Bill - Thoughts?

The more people look at ways to go around it the more can be done to shut down these loopholes and illegal sites.
 
Kippax Street 1880 said:
Did you see how teenagers are getting around the restrictions already. I had to laugh at the ingenuity of it.

www.pushsquare.com

UK Citizens Using the Photorealistic Death Stranding 2 on PS5 to Bypass Porn Blocks

Thank you, Kojima
www.pushsquare.com www.pushsquare.com
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Like getting your older brother to buy, cigs, booze and wank mags for you and your mates. Times change, people don’t.

But we still have a prohibition on under 18’s buying cigs, booze and wank mags. No one scraps a law because some people can easily circumvent it.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
The more people look at ways to go around it the more can be done to shut down these loopholes and illegal sites.
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The government has no powers to compel some dubious characters in some dodgy country, to do anything, not that they would take any notice. And we cannot just block everything because most of it is legal to view by adults. And there's MILLIONS of porn sites. Literally millions and they spring up all the time. Not like a few hundred or even a few thousand. So blocking them is not realistic either. I really don't see how you can stop it.

If someone wants to search for some porn, the sites on page 1 of the Google search likely require age verification. But many of the sites on page 7 won't. No VPN or circumvention needed at all.
 
Chippy_boy said:
The government has no powers to compel some dubious characters in some dodgy country, to do anything, not that they would take any notice. And we cannot just block everything because most of it is legal to view by adults. And there's MILLIONS of porn sites. Literally millions and they spring up all the time. Not like a few hundred or even a few thousand. So blocking them is not realistic either. I really don't see how you can stop it.

If someone wants to search for some porn, the sites on page 1 of the Google search likely require age verification. But many of the sites on page 7 won't. No VPN or circumvention needed at all.
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But that is kind of the point. It’s an obstacle to easy access. Page 7 and not page 1. The supermarkets won’t sell me cigs and beer, but I know a small shop on the other side of town that will happily do so.

It’s the same principle and how long before Google blacklists sites unless it has age verification or a paywall?

This isn’t the end game, it’s the first step.
 
As people may know I am a fan of AI tools, so thought I would ask ChatGPT and this is what it said. I think people may find this interesting. I did.

Q: There's lots of discussion about the governments new online safety bill and the fact that it won't stop anyone from actually accessing porn or harmful material, even though that is its aim. Given there are millions of porn sites, most in foreign countries over which we have no juristriction, and given the sheer volume means we cannot block those that don't comply, 1 by1, is there ANYTHING that the government could realistically implement technically, that could work? Banning smartphones for under 16s perhaps? Anything else?

ChatGPT said:​

You're absolutely right to be sceptical — the Online Safety Act (as it is now) aims to protect children and tackle harmful content, but technical enforcement is extremely difficult, especially at scale and across borders. Let's break down what could work, realistically or theoretically, and the trade-offs involved:

✅ What Could Technically Work — But With Huge Caveats​

1. Network-Level Porn Blocking (like ISP filtering)​

  • How it works: ISPs block known domains or IPs hosting adult content.
  • Feasibility: Already exists in the UK with default-on “parental filters” for broadband.
  • Problems:
    • Easy to bypass with VPNs, proxies, or DNS changes.
    • Cannot scale to millions of ever-changing domains.
    • Doesn’t work on encrypted content well (e.g. HTTPS/TLS SNI encryption).

2. Age Verification on All Porn Sites​

  • How it works: Sites must verify users with passports, bank cards, etc.
  • Feasibility: Tried in the UK in 2019 (Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act), then abandoned.
  • Problems:
    • Only UK-based or cooperative sites comply.
    • Foreign sites can ignore UK law.
    • Easy to bypass with a VPN.
    • Creates privacy and data security concerns.

3. OS-Level Parental Controls (on phones, tablets)​

  • How it works: Devices must enforce child-safe profiles with restrictions.
  • Feasibility: Already possible via Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link.
  • Problems:
    • Relies on parents setting it up.
    • Smart teenagers often find workarounds.
    • Inconsistent across devices and platforms.

4. Ban Smartphones for Under-16s​

  • Feasibility: In theory, yes — enforced via retailers or mobile networks.
  • Problems:
    • Enormous civil liberties and enforcement issues.
    • Kids would still access through friends' devices, second-hand phones, etc.
    • Likely politically toxic and impractical.

What Won’t Work​

  • Site-by-site takedowns or bans: Too many to handle, and hosting moves quickly.
  • AI content detection: Can flag content after it's posted — too late for prevention.
  • Relying on tech companies to self-regulate: Weak compliance unless under threat of fines.

What Might Work In Future​

1. Digital ID for Age-Gated Services​

  • Like a government-backed anonymous age token, verifying you're 18+ without revealing identity.
  • Would require new legislation, infrastructure, and industry buy-in.
  • Risks include surveillance creep and exclusion of people without ID.

2. Mandatory Device-Level Content Filtering​

  • Phones sold in the UK could be required to block adult sites unless turned off by an adult user.
  • Could be enforced at the firmware level.
  • Would likely require major cooperation from Apple, Google, and manufacturers.

So What’s the Realistic Answer?​

In practice, no purely technical solution can fully block access to adult content — particularly from determined teenagers. The government could:

  • Shift focus to education and digital resilience.
  • Mandate easy-to-use parental controls as standard on all devices.
  • Pressure platforms (like TikTok, Instagram, etc.) where kids actually spend time, rather than going after porn sites directly.

Bottom Line​

❌ A “technical fix” that fully blocks access to porn or harmful content is not realistically achievable without massive trade-offs in privacy, freedom, and feasibility.
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✅ The most effective tools are likely device-level parental controls, platform regulation, education, and possibly digital ID systems — none perfect, all politically complex.
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The top ten Apps in the App store aren't much of a surprise this week.

Do we need to change the 'Nation of shopkeepers' idiom to a 'Nation of self-abusers'?
 
grunge said:
How long before VPN's are banned... or attempted to be banned anyways.
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Not a chance mate.
Although they CAN be used to change the location it looks like you're accessing for, there are many organisations out there that use them day to day to ensure secure access to their networks when out and about.

Banking, finance, government and most of the corporate world rely on VPNs within their networks and would rapidly shudder to a halt if they weren’t available.
The NHS use them for all staff that don't have a fixed base desk, the Police use them and many others. A lot of orgs these days stipulate you use a "VPN" to access their/customer data because it's a way of ensuring data integrity and security.

Even MPs are unlikely to be so stupid as to try and ban them, at least once read the riot act by anyone with even a hint of technical understanding.
 
grunge said:
How long before VPN's are banned... or attempted to be banned anyways.
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Impossible. Vast numbers of people work from home and pretty much all of them need a VPN at some time or other - many of them ALL the time - to access their employers' IT systems. VPNs are an integral part of any economy and banning them is a non-starter. You might as well say let's ban computers.

I've seen your question asked elsewhere and (no disrespect intended, genuinely) the people asking the question don't understand the issues.
 
Are those free Argos catalogues still doing the rounds?
On a completely unrelated query, does Argos sell lingerie?
Asking for a friend.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
The more people look at ways to go around it the more can be done to shut down these loopholes and illegal sites.
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These sites aren't illegal, what are you talking about? The 'actual' illegal ones you're thinking of aren't on the internet.

Again, you're one of those who doesn't understand the difference between the internet and the dark web (where the illegal stuff is) It's shortsighted, uneducated folks like yourself who don't understand how 'age verification' on 'legal sites' isn't 'saving the kids' and that VPN's and other forms of bypasses aren't 'breaking the law'.

All you're doing is playing right into the hands of scammers, who can now set up fake 'age verifications' and 'ask for your bank details as verification'.
 
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Metal Biker said:
These sites aren't illegal, what are you talking about? The 'actual' illegal ones you're thinking of aren't on the internet.

Again, you're one of those who doesn't understand the difference between the internet and the dark web (where the illegal stuff is) It's shortsighted, uneducated folks like yourself who don't understand how 'age verification' on 'legal sites' isn't 'saving the kids' and that VPN's and other forms of bypasses aren't 'breaking the law'.

All you're doing is playing right into the hands of scammers, who can now set up fake 'age verifications' and 'ask for your bank details as verification'.
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yeh, lets do nothing and go mad at any steps to reduce self harm in children.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
yeh, lets do nothing and go mad at any steps to reduce self harm in children.
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That's up to parents to regulate their children's use of social media, not the Government's. This action is the SAME as 'doing nothing', as it's not addressing the problem at hand; social media influencers.

Ships are sinking?! We must ground the planes! That's your message.
 
Metal Biker said:
That's up to parents to regulate their children's use of social media, not the Government's. This action is the SAME as 'doing nothing', as it's not addressing the problem at hand; social media influencers.

Ships are sinking?! We must ground the planes! That's your message.
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the 'down to parents' argument is bollox, lets just scrap all child safety laws and legislation, scrap age limits for sex, alcohol, drugs and movies etc as it all just be down to the parents.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
the 'down to parents' argument is bollox, lets just scrap all child safety laws and legislation, scrap age limits for sex, alcohol, drugs and movies etc as it all just be down to the parents.
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They can see all of that in a recent episode of Eastenders.

Also trust you to go OTT to try and prove a point; we HAVE all those limits already in place, so why do people still self-harm? Not the gotcha you thought it was, is it.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
Major pornography providers including Pornhub, the UK’s most popular pornography site, have pledged to implement the strict age checks required under the act.

The act also requires sites and apps to shield children from other forms of harmful material, particularly content that encourages suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. It requires tech platforms to suppress the spread of content that is abusive or incites hatred against people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act such as age, race and sex.
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But as I mentioned in my previous post - in putting up these ID gates on content that relates to suicide, eating disorders, and addictions you are also ID-gating actual support groups for all of those things.

You now need to identify yourself to read Reddit's Alcoholics Anonymous Subreddit - and the same is true for lots of support communities like that. How can anybody think that's a good outcome? These support groups are anonymous for a reason. People just won't use them otherwise.

Yes, maybe we protect some small percentage of children (that should be protected anyway if their parents or guardians were using the tools available to them) - but the trade-off is that you've now put an extra barrier between people getting help they need. Those small barriers make a huge difference when it comes to reaching out for support.

So to summarise - we have people who will download malware thinking it's a free VPN, people handing over government IDs to dodgy websites, legitimate websites with poor InfoSec that will be targeted by hackers to steal those IDs, people being gated out of support communities. And for a piece of legislation that doesn't even seem likely to come close to achieving what it sets out to do.

If it's effective then it's harmful, if it's impotent then it's pointless. I really don't see how there is a good outcome.
 
meltonblue said:
No, a lot will probably be trying to find out now about they work. The vast majority of people including teenagers have no idea about them currently.
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You are right. You have corrected my hyperbole. But it will spread fast.
 
Metal Biker said:
That's up to parents to regulate their children's use of social media, not the Government's. This action is the SAME as 'doing nothing', as it's not addressing the problem at hand; social media influencers.

Ships are sinking?! We must ground the planes! That's your message.
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How do I stop my grandkids turning ,safe search off on android device?
 
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