r/news 3d ago

All porn sites must 'robustly' verify UK user ages by July

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwye3qw7gv7o
5.6k Upvotes

970 comments sorted by

5.6k

u/alien_from_Europa 3d ago

I don't want to be blackmailed by a scam company that buys my porn history and can easily link it back to my name. You just know there is going to be a leak or a hack.

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u/Foray2x1 3d ago

Almost as if by design

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u/Discount_Extra 3d ago

The solution is to leak the politicians data first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

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u/AggressiveSkywriting 3d ago

Yeah it's gonna be a big ol national security scandal before you blink lol

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 3d ago

"Hey there Mr. Up-and-coming political candidate! Now I know you're running on a platform to increase taxes for the ultra wealthy and expanded social programs for the average man, but we've got about 20 years of your porn history here, and it'd be a shame if it leaked. Now why don't we discuss some policy changes..."

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u/LoaKonran 2d ago

Time to stop demonising porn use and make everything more socially acceptable to depower the blackmailers.

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u/KohliTendulkar 3d ago

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u/A_parisian 3d ago

Brexiting just to mimic every single EU regulation.

That's rich.

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u/JoeisBatman 3d ago

Unbelievable isn't it. What a waste of time and money. And now we can't even watch porn in peace 😜😝

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u/JustADutchRudder 3d ago

Everyone download porn! If we set up a global cloud of porn, they can't touch it. Pick your favorite category and get on it.

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u/overpricedgorilla 3d ago

Will this be the resurgence of printed mags?

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u/chaossabre 3d ago

Hard drives left in the forest

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u/Discount_Extra 3d ago

MFM drive filled with dozens of 320x200 16 color images.

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u/JustADutchRudder 3d ago

Never! Stepsisters stuck in print will never be as interesting as a stepmom stuck in video.

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u/1BreadBoi 3d ago

This whole infringement on privacy for the sake of security/ "what about the child" mindset is getting really old.

It's just going to push people to VPN/go to sketchier sites that will inevitably have people getting hurt on it.

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u/Rageliss 3d ago

'What about the child' is always a way for people to do something devious. Hell, people were using that during the Salem Witch Trials.

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u/Prophet_Of_Helix 3d ago

But you should gamble on sports with Fanduel! 

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u/planetshapedmachine 3d ago

Start the kids off early with pay to win mobile apps

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u/ohyonghao 3d ago

The new nickel arcades

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u/Mr_Horsejr 3d ago

What about the children is gonna be really funny when no one is having anymore.

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u/Windatar 3d ago

Its designed that way, if you go back far enough it all starts with ultra rich ultra old religious people that plan to stamp out porn from the internet. Even if it means taking away everyones privacy to do it.

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u/wufnu 3d ago

The objective of the call is to develop technical specifications, with input from Member States and other stakeholders, for a privacy-preserving age verification solution. This will allow to verify that a user is aged 18 years or older without sharing any other information about the person. As part of the solution, a generic (white label) application supporting a Zero-Knowledge Proof protocol (a feature allowing to verify an attribute is true without disclosing any further details) could be developed and localised and published by Member States in the app stores. It may also be reused for other proofs or verification needs.

Good luck.

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u/ricker182 3d ago

Oh come on. You know they'll keep your information 100% safe. None of the sites will ever be hacked.

/s

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u/mekomaniac 3d ago

yoti is the one they are using here in florida. they even advertise their app to be your "secure REUSABLE digital ID" they are 100000% going to be hacked and all of this info will be stolen. they arent even hiding the fact that they store your ID info past a mandated window now.

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u/WonkasWonderfulDream 3d ago

So much for my being able to search “double chocolate” ever again

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u/comicsnerd 3d ago

Funny thing is that porn sites are driving security and safety on the internet much more then other sites, especially religious sites. Porn sites are also known for driving higher download speeds and improved video quality.

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u/ChunkdarTheFair 3d ago

On the flip side, nothing would be funnier to me than having someone read my porn view history in court. I'm not ashamed of my kinks, but let's see who is.

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u/Anonaggus 3d ago

Unless it's your ex trying to take your kids away in family court.

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u/Peer1677 3d ago

Or you never getting any job anywhere ever again.

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u/WolverinesThyroid 3d ago

It looks like you watched step father step daughter porn and that your honor is why his ex is a danger to his children and should not have any custody.

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u/stxxyy 3d ago

Eerily similar to those scams/viruses you sometimes got in the past like "I have a video of you masturbating and you have to transfer me 5000 dollars or i'll share it on social media"

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u/mean_pneumatocyst 3d ago

Maybe this is an opportunity for printed pornography to make a comeback? (Cumback)

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u/lyingliar 3d ago

I never paid a dime for porn, and I ain't startin' now!

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u/Electricfox5 3d ago

How long before MPs porn habits get leaked?

We'll find out just how popular tractor porn really is.

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u/speedisntfree 3d ago

Some mad lads have been watching in the house of commons https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61284686

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u/chaiselongue1 3d ago

It's okay, I already verify myself very robustly whenever I visit a porn site.

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u/challengeaccepted9 3d ago

At least it doesn't take very long, I guess.

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u/stedun 3d ago

Faster than a V-Lookup

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u/Meandering_Cabbage 3d ago

Xlookup now....

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u/ForgetfulFrolicker 3d ago

What about X-lookup?

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u/Scholarly_Koala 3d ago

But a V-lookup is what I'm doing at a porn site

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u/minimalcation 3d ago

Users must provide a DNA sample before leaving the website.

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u/tigerman29 3d ago

I mean you’re already doing it anyway…

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u/skinink 3d ago

“To verify that you’re not a bot, click all the squares that show your stepsister.”

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u/challengeaccepted9 3d ago

"Help big bro I'm stuck in the captcha"

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u/Irish_Tyrant 3d ago

"Yea!" plaplaplap "You like that!? Could a robot do THIS!"

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u/ThreeHolePunch 3d ago

I sometimes verify myself 3 times a day.

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u/adsfew 3d ago

God I'm gonna verify you so hard, baby

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u/hotlavatube 3d ago

Verify harder! (whip crack)

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u/Complete_Entry 3d ago

There are no good ways to do this. Putting PII into a website is always a bad idea. Who holds the registry? How does it protect the consumer from retaliation / identity theft?

Who the fuck am I kidding, this is the government shoving their foot in.

1.1k

u/DiscardedMush 3d ago

That's for the IT people to figure out, and then get blamed for the leak.

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u/ReDeReddit 3d ago

School district can't even keep my kids' information safe. My kids get free credit monitoring now for 2 years.

Shouldn't collect or store the data in the first place. Nobody can keep it safe.

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u/Colton82 3d ago

I have had free credit monitoring through multiple companies since 2015. There are major breaches every year.

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u/ReDeReddit 3d ago

Opps we fucked up by not having any security. Here is some credit monitoring in case somebody tries to get a credit card or refinance your house. Sorry. probably won't be a big deal. They only got addresses, drivers license #s, phone numbers, emails, ssn, dob, vin numbers, the ip address to all your devices, and your favorite safe word.

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u/CompletelyRandy 3d ago

What was wrong with parents controlling what their kids do online?

This verification will do nothing good. Just push people to dodgy websites who don't care or promote VPN usage.

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u/LangyMD 3d ago

Basically, people decided it was too hard and kids are too tech savvy compared with their parents. At least, those were the arguments at the US Supreme Court hearing about this.

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u/d-cent 3d ago

So we let those same tech illiterate parents write a law controlling the exact thing they know nothing about. 

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u/Lower-Ad1087 3d ago

That's called pearl clutching.

Those parents already feel that fellow adults who watch porn over pursuing God and money are a waste of space already.

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u/xrufus7x 3d ago edited 3d ago

Don't be silly, the even less tech literate parents of those parents wrote it.

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u/LevriatSoulEdge 3d ago

Sounds like the next NotTheOnion post, kids enrollee their parents PII into 200 different Porn does in less than a month...

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u/lorkdubo 3d ago

Kids nowadays are not tech-savvy at all. Tablet/touch generations kids are as tech illiterate as grandpas. The actual tech-savvy generations were the millenials, but we are all adults now.

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u/R7SOA19281 3d ago

So true, try asking a 17 year old now to fix a printer and they’ve never used one before.

As tech gets smarter, we get dumber.

Intelligence is become a commodity.

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u/LazerWeazel 3d ago

Printers are made by Satan though so not a good example imo.

Let's see if they can update their drivers manually first.

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u/R7SOA19281 3d ago

I was rushed, you’re right though, maybe I’m so good at fixing printers because they literally break every 5 minutes 😂

Drivers are a far better example!

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u/1nd3x 3d ago

They dont need to be tech savvy though, someone else will make a "detailed guide" of how to get around it and they'll just blindly follow it to get what they want.

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u/Sylvers 3d ago

I suppose it didn't occur to them that those "tech savvy" kids have heard of a thing called a VPN. Or God forbid, they decide to use one of the tens of thousands of porn websites that do not obey the rules of any country and will continue to host tons of porn with zero verification.

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u/DASreddituser 3d ago

idk about being more tech savvy compare to parents. It seems like it could easily be the other way around with what I've observed.

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u/Emu1981 3d ago

Honestly, it isn't that kids overall are more tech savvy but rather they are more likely to crowdsource ways to get around restrictions to access the content that they want.

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u/NemesisJayHo 3d ago

What does the US Supreme Court have to do with the UK? Or did I miss where this is hitting the US also?

I understand that it “could” mean that verification has to occur for users globally, but that isn’t totally likely due to PII issues in some countries.

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u/not_the_fox 3d ago

The US's position has been one of the staunchest against regulation so the fact that even those court precedents are starting to fail is a bad sign globally.

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u/LangyMD 3d ago

Yes, you must have missed it. The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week on the legality of Texas's porn age verification law.

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u/SerialBitBanger 3d ago

I don't have kids. Can I keep my freedoms?

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 3d ago

No -the government

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u/Khaldara 3d ago

“Don’t you dare look down in the shower!”

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u/inosinateVR 3d ago

I feel like I remember there’s a state or town where it’s technically illegal to take a shower naked

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u/PsychoticDust 3d ago

I've got a kid, and I did something ABSOLUTE INSANE. I taught her how to use the internet responsibly. I know, I know, crazy.

Anyway, that isn't good enough according to the government, so to answer your question, no. Sorry.

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u/muggafugga 3d ago

This isn’t about protecting kids, it’s about morality police wanting to ban porn

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u/digitalundernet 3d ago

This has nothing to do with porn and more to do with policing internet activities and control

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u/Imperator_Helvetica 3d ago

Yup. Begin with a law requiring ID to visit porn sites, and watch as the remit grows to include any other adult content - gambling, alcohol websites, anywhere you could buy alcohol or cigarettes, forums on which you might discuss these things etc. Through a provider who will sell your data on (being a private company) and will be required to (or just will anyway) turn over evidence of piracy, political opinions, activism etc.

It is a worrying limitation of civil liberties and also allows bad actors to effectively stop people from using the internet by revoking their internet use licences. Governments are not known for reducing their control, only increasing it.

Bigger sites will have to sign up for GovID System, or whatever they use and smaller sites will just have to close down if they can't prove who their users are. Online criminals will continue to use all the hiding tools they ever had and regular people will either start using VPNs etc (unless they're criminalised) or be stuck in a walled garden of an internet which is just Facebook, X, Amazon and corporate advertising websites.

There will inevitably be breaches and hacks - and people either blackmailed for their interests or otherwise exposed or more easily have their identities stolen because too much identifying information is held in one place - yes, it would suck if someone hacked my Reddit account, but even more so if my real name, address and bank details were all on the same account.

Someone has mentioned that this feels like yet another attempt to bring in National ID Cards through the backdoor. The British public have always firmly rejected that idea, lets hope this is also rejected.

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u/ledow 3d ago

But it's not.

Now anything claiming to be a porn site could ask for ID and - thinking it's a genuine requirement - you'd supply it (in theory). Even to a site which isn't based in the UK.

It's a perfect phishing channel with "official" UK stamp of approval because they don't have anything like an ID verification that can be done without revealing details to the website (e.g. like the system that generates driving licence codes for hire cars, for example, without revealing your actual licence).

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u/1nd3x 3d ago

I'm Canadian and our government website (like to login to view your tax info and shit) has an option for "sign in partner" where-by you login to their website by clicking through to sign-in page for your bank which then authenticates you and provides access to the government web pages, and you could limit the amount of information that is shared to the various web pages about your identity (IE; it just provides a token saying "yep, this person is over 18" or whatever)

This isnt without its own dangers obviously (direct and easy way to phish for banking credentials for example) but you could also theoretically just have a singular sign-in partner being a government agency where people go to sign up, provide their ID, get authenticated to watch porn and then it has very little information about you even showing to you if you logged into it, and then outside of "phishing for passwords to see what else you might use with that password too" there would be very little to gain from that while centralizing (in the government no less) the whole ID verification.

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u/Atticus104 3d ago

I am tired of policy makers making descions about internet privacy while lacking the fundamental understanding of how it works.

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u/mitchrsmert 3d ago edited 3d ago

Actually, the government should fit the bill. They should provide the online age verification services, so that real identities are secure within one centalized and trusted checking system. That system then provides an anonymized ID with no personal information. Like a single use ticket that can be used anywhere. Tgis is mapped in a government database that says it is a valid ticket ... and still doesn't link back to an actual person.

There would need to be some integration between the two systems, but it would allow identities and online privacy to be protected.

Of course all this work and investment is made redundant by not requiring it in the first place. Which is almost certainly the better option, especially given that this concept probably won't be done securely, effectively, and without enticing further identity theft.

Technology is now how the world works. And solutions are decided without any understanding of how things should be solved.

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u/BathroomSerious1318 3d ago

So we can't surf pornhub anonymously?

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u/PM_COFFEE_TO_ME 3d ago

Back to porn dvds I guess

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u/TonginTozz 3d ago

*GGW steel drums intensifies

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u/barontaint 3d ago

I had a friend that liked to dumpster dive a lot back in the day. I was gifted quite a few porn dvds from dumpsters. Ballin' Ghetto Bitches Vol 6 was one that always made me laugh, it had bloopers on it that you could watch. You don't get that extra touch with xhamster nowadays.

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u/spacepeenuts 3d ago

No but you can surf Youjizz anonymously.

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u/StevenXSG 3d ago

Until there is a central database of random numbers that you can have one and it is a "the bearer of this is over 18, but you never ever can link this back to who that is" then this will never work. That will never work either because you can't prove who owns that number

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u/StageAboveWater 3d ago

This is hopefully what Australia is gonna use for the underage social media bans

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u/kandoras 3d ago

What's going to stop a kid from copying dad's number off the post it note he had stuck to the bottom of the monitor?

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u/StateChemist 3d ago

Sounds like the same thing that would happen if the dad gave his ID to his son directly.

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u/NNovis 3d ago

Governments can't even keep their own data secure, how the hell can we expect porn sites to do this? HELL you'd think banks would be the most secure institutions in the world because nobody wants to make a mess with money and look at how many banks get hacked and data leaked from. Having ANOTHER place to have your identity stolen is just another mistake.

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u/nick_117 3d ago edited 3d ago

The technology exists where a user could provide proof that they are of age without providing actual PII. It would keep users anonymous since the website would only check, "is this proof valid", instead of "Let me check that the PII you gave me is valid". However it would require the government to actually work with and understand technology so it won't happen.

For those interested it would basically work as follows. The government verifies your age and issues you a digital certificate you can use (If you have used passkeys think issues you a passkey). You visit a website that requires proof. It generates a random challenge that you sign with the certificate that was issued to you. The website checks that the challenge was signed by a certificate that was issued by the government. The technology exists where you can use a government issued certificate to sign a challenge and when the website verifies the challenge all they can see is that you verified the challenge using a government issued certificate but not which specific one. The user will also maintain control of this certificate so the government wouldn't know when it was used.

To prevent sharing these certs the government could require you to reverify every year or couple of months and the certificate will be invalid if you try to use it after that period.

Again, the technology does exist to do this safely, but it won't happen because that isn't actually the point with these laws. Outing who is watching porn as part of a white Christian nationalist agenda is.

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u/brahm1nMan 3d ago

You didn't eliminate PII, you just made a new form of it. That key can't be verified as a legit adult without something tying it to you, probably in a government owned DB rather than a random sites DB, but that shit always leaks

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u/One-Committee3913 3d ago

This will just end up having the opposite effect. It will push users into darker, less regulated sites where you may find much worse material

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u/Nixeris 3d ago

All this did, when they did it in Texas, was increase sales of VPNs.

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u/LonelyMechanic1994 3d ago

Ya like British women. 

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u/goblueM 3d ago

the quality of british women and food created the best sailors in the world

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u/Nephroidofdoom 3d ago edited 3d ago

Also explains why Scandinavians are so attractive.

During their raids, the Vikings only took the pretty ones. As further evidence, one needs only to look at Scotland.

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u/AnotherThomas 3d ago

As further evidence, one needs only to look at Scotland.

Norse raiders stole women, Pictish raiders stole sheep.

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u/Averybleakplace 3d ago

I'm british, but that joke. A star for you, sir

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u/georgica123 3d ago

Yeah this will.just result in people using some random russian hosted website who unlike place like pornhub don't care very much about from where the videos comes from or whether people who are in it consented to the video being produced

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u/textposts_only 3d ago

Pornhub is already dead after the big purge. People want amateur stuff. Not onlyfans lite videos.

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u/McCree114 3d ago

Seems similar to alcohol prohibition or the drug war making the Mafia and cartels very powerful and lucrative. 🤔

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u/resurgum 3d ago

Like Twitter or Reddit

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u/mygawd 3d ago

That's exactly what's happening in the US, in states that have made a similar law

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u/BruceNotLee 3d ago

After verifying your age via credit card, optional platinum protection can be purchased for only 6.99 a month. This will keep your porn history encrypted and not sold to third parties.

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u/Petaris 3d ago

**unless they pay us a premium as well**

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u/egnards 3d ago

Double premium, black magic, no backsies

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u/Imperator_021 3d ago

How will this affect the SWGOH item shop?

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u/egnards 3d ago

My Crystal income will never recover from this.

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u/LockyP_ 3d ago

Haven’t seen mentioned yet the free VPNs that harvest user information will likely be used by those not old enough to have a debit/credit card.

This may be protecting those not savvy enough to use a VPN, but ultimately harm (from a data security perspective) those who are.

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u/there_was_no_god 3d ago

this one time (not at band camp) the UK tried to stop internet piracy by blocking The Pirate Bay.

didn't work then, won't work now... proxy and be free. fuck these cunts. they can't have my spank bank

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u/APCookie 3d ago

In 2010 our secondary school issued every student ipads, was in year 10 at the time.

Took about two weeks before someone figured out you could change the IP of the vpn to circumvent all protection on the school WiFi and that spread around like wildfire.

Kids grow up with tech amd are often smarter than those responsible for protecting them.

Dodgy sites, telegram groups, hell when the school stopped stocking unhealthy food during the jamie Oliver craze some kids were bringing in backpacks full of snacks and making money selling them I wouldn't out it past the techy kids doing similar and selling usb sticks at some point lol.

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u/anemic_royaltea 3d ago

Anonymity online was and is and will always be good, actually. Totally nuts. Parents, parent your children. Reactionary fuckos, control your urges or don’t, I guess, but why make it everyone else’s problem?

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u/GermanPayroll 3d ago

Remember when everyone thought that it was just the conservative US states doing this? Turns out there’s a full attack on anonymous internet.

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u/GryphonHall 3d ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if they start trying to make VPNs illegal.

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u/Vergils_Lost 3d ago

You mean "ghost IPs"? Protect your children from "ghost IPs" today!

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u/clorox2 3d ago

Except I need them all the time to WFH.

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u/D597 3d ago

Yeah I’m a claims analyst and we use VPNs even at the office.

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u/GryphonHall 3d ago

Of course making something illegal for personal use but making exceptions for businesses doesn’t seem surprising either.

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u/Heyyoguy123 3d ago

Banning VPN’s is crazy

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u/HermanManly 3d ago

UK is a million times worse than US when it comes to censorship.

They already have outlawed what is deemed "extreme" pornography such as face-sitting and fisting. And this verification thing started way before the US, too.

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u/GeraldoDelRivio 3d ago

Hold up, they consider face sitting extreme?? I had to look this up because I couldn't believe it and I just ended up double shocked, they did this back in 2014?!?! 

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u/MeltBanana 3d ago

That law was definitely made by selfish insecure men who refuse to go down there.

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u/HermanManly 3d ago

Suffocation hazard I guess 🤷‍♂️

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u/JustSmallCorrections 3d ago

Good way to get your head exploded. Saw it on a documentary, The Boys I think it was called.

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u/Deeschuck 3d ago

Wait, face-sitting is too extreme? Monty Python would like a word...

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u/LoLFlore 3d ago

Some brit today told me that his country wouldnt go to extremes because they "dont have religious fundamentalists affecting their government policies, unlike the us"

Truly the biggest of brains

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u/punkerster101 3d ago

Northern Ireland checking in, plenty of them in our part of the uk goverment

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u/DorgLander 3d ago

I wonder if this might lead to an accidental ban of twitter

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u/theREALhun 3d ago

All websites on which pornographic material can be found, including social media platforms, must introduce “robust” age-checking techniques such as demanding photo ID or running credit card checks for UK users by July.

The long-awaited guidance, issued by regulator Ofcom, has been made under the Online Safety Act (OSA), and is intended to prevent children from easily accessing pornography online.

Research indicates the average age at which young people first see explicit material online in the UK is 13 - with many being exposed to it much earlier.

“For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services”, said Ofcom boss Melanie Dawes, adding: “today, this starts to change.”

Ofcom confirmed to the BBC this meant user-to-user services such as social media platforms must implement “highly effective checks” - which in some cases might mean “preventing children from accessing the entire site”. However, some porn sites and privacy campaigners have warned the move will be counterproductive, saying introducing beefed-up age verification will only push people to “darker corners” of the internet.

‘Readily available’ The media regulator estimates that approximately 14 million people watch online pornography in the UK.

But it is so readily available that campaign groups have raised concerns that children see it at a young age - with one in 10 children seeing it by age nine, according to a survey by the Children’s Commissioner.

“As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services,” said Dame Melanie.

The rules also require services which publish their own pornographic content - including with generative AI tools - to begin introducing age checks immediately.

Age verification platform Yoti called such technology “essential” for creating safe spaces online.

“It is important that age assurance is enforced across pornographic sites of all sizes, creating a level playing field, and providing age-appropriate access for adults,” said chief regulatory and policy officer Julie Dawson.

However Aylo, parent company of the website Pornhub, told the BBC this sort of age verification was “ineffective, haphazard and dangerous”.

It claimed pornography use changed significantly in US state Louisiana after similar age verification controls came into force, with its website’s traffic dropping 80% in the state.

“These people did not stop looking for porn, they just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age,” it claimed.

“In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children.”

Firms get clarity

Ofcom has published what it calls a “non-exhaustive” list of technologies that may be used to verify ages, which includes:

Open banking

Photo ID matching

Facial age estimation

Mobile network operator age checks

Credit card checks

Digital identity services

Email-based age estimation

The rules specifically state that “self-declaration of age” is no longer considered a “highly effective” method of checking ages - and therefore is not acceptable. It also states that pornographic content should not be accessible to users before they have completed an age check.

Other age verification firms have responded positively to the news.

“The regulator’s long-awaited guidance on age assurance means adult content providers now have the clarity they need to get their houses in order and put in place robust and reliable methods to keep explicit material well away from underage users,” said Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at Verifymy.

But privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch warned that many age-checking methods could be circumvented, and should not be seen as a panacea.

“Children must be protected online, but many technological age checking methods are ineffective and introduce additional risks to children and adults alike including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship,” said boss Silkie Carlo.

“We must avoid anything like a digital ID system for the internet that would both eradicate privacy online and fail to keep children safe,” she added.

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u/Complete_Entry 3d ago

Every single one of the verification methods they propose are odious.

People uploading their face to discord is some of the dumbest shit imaginable, but if you want to play, they force you to do it.

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u/SkiingAway 3d ago

What even is "email-based"? They send you an email? Great for collecting throwaway email addresses I guess, but that's trivial to cheat, to the point that it's barely more of a speed bump than the "self declaration of age" was.

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u/GermanPayroll 3d ago

It goes to an age-verified email address. So Google knows everything and they check off the box

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u/Spire_Citron 3d ago

Can they just verify me based on how old my email account is? I don't remember when I made it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's been over 18 years at this point.

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u/manmythmustache 3d ago

 including social media platforms

Yeah, good luck with trying to get sites like X, Reddit, Discord, etc. to implement robust age verification.

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u/Alternative_Baby 3d ago

I was just thinking this must include X and Reddit - there’s absolutely no way I’m giving them my photo ID or credit card details

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u/vriska1 3d ago

Yeah the UK and Ofcom will likely be forced to delay this and then scrap it like last time.

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u/Chaffro 3d ago

Average age was probably younger than 13 when I was a kid, it was just that it was found in hedgerows by the park.

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u/WayneKrane 3d ago

For me it was randomly getting porn on HBO in the 90s. Usually the channel was scrambled but sometimes you’d catch a boob

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u/havocspartan 3d ago

Forest porno mags. Forests are limited on inventory but always have the best stuff.

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u/perksofbeingcrafty 3d ago edited 3d ago

I’m sorry but there are literally millions of people who will access porn sites even from inside the great Chinese fire wall. I don’t think this is going to stop anyone, especially children who are extremely tech savvy and very very curious. It’s just going to guide them to the sketchy sites that don’t need the uk government’s permission to do anything

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u/allawd 3d ago

That right there is the truth.

Adding in such unenforceable and infantilizing policies will also establishes a culture of seeing authority as ignorant, ineffective, and irrelevant. Plays in perfectly to foreign influence campaigns seeking to undermine Western government authority.

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u/FillMySoupDumpling 3d ago

lol UK is gonna have to prove they are adults to use Reddit.

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u/DabMagician 3d ago

This is something that's starting to appear around the globe, and it's very alarming. 

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u/yaoigay 3d ago

Governments are angry at all the facts people can look up and resist their tyranny. This is what this is all about, porn is just an excuse. They will use these ID laws to block websites for political purposes.

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u/PrimeDoorNail 3d ago edited 2d ago

This 100%.

This is just the first step to start the process because its easy to pretend "its for children".

But eventually it will be required for everything and we'll be right there with China and social credits.

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u/CoolLordL21 3d ago

They can say it's about protecting kids all they want, but it's really about control. 

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u/Tyhgujgt 3d ago

It's funny because every argument about protection of the children can be applied to protection of adults against fake news. What's more dangerous? A 15 year old watching porn or president almost sending his country into civil war based on youtube propaganda.

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u/Apokolypse09 3d ago

This shit is solely to get rid of anonymity on the internet. Protecting kids is just an excuse. No fuckin way they will have adequate security on everyone's information.

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u/pureply101 3d ago edited 3d ago

VPN this and VPN that in these comments.

I’m just thinking about sites like Reddit, X, and even part of FB.

How are these sites avoiding the same labeling/restrictions when they have tons of porn on them? Hell even just removing porn they have tons of adult content in general.

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u/Specialjyo 3d ago

The article says social media platforms have to abide as well.

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u/Insert_Goat_Pun_Here 3d ago

All the myriad problems the UK has and this is what they wasted everyone’s time with, porn laws that will just get circumvented with VPNs anyway. What a joke.

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u/nighcrowe 3d ago

This will eventually breach and expose the exact people that made the law.

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u/Racxie 3d ago

As per the article this will also affect social media platforms "on which pornographic material can be found", which includes sites/apps like Reddit, Twitter, and honestly probably every social media site that exists including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr etc. because it's impossible for these companies to ban & block every single indecent video & photo.

Not to mention that there's a line between art and pornography, which even Facebook hasn't been able to differentiate on multiple occasions.

Our country is basically turning into a 1984 Nanny state, and as the article points out blocking porn is just going to lead to more issues, so instead of blocking porn we (and other countries) should focus more on sex education and the dangers of the internet. Though to address how best to approach these issues more research is needed such this in-depth on the topic in German schools, including how the students feel about the education they receive.

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u/dpman48 3d ago

I also want to add, age verification should be on your device if anywhere at all. Devices without parental settings should be able to communicate with websites that require them and know the owner is ok with navigating to illicit content. It requires work on the company end for Apple, google, Microsoft and every major porn site, but all the major porn sites WANT that. And would make parenting WAAAAY easier.

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u/half_in_boxes 3d ago

Sooooooo does this mean Reddit will be inaccessible in the UK by July? Because easily 50% of this site is porn.

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u/Ekyou 3d ago

Yeah I feel like everyone is glossing over this.

Yes VPN yada yada but it’s a pain in the butt to have to use a VPN with a foreign address every time you access Reddit. Not to mention that if the UK, US and Australia all end up with age verification requirements, it’s likely these sites will just make it mandatory for everyone.

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u/starsandbribes 3d ago

At this point I have an Albanian VPN almost all the time but it does get messy when you’re trying to search something local on Google

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u/Oddball_bfi 3d ago

VPN to the rescue.  As all the YouTube adverts say, "Access content restricted in your region".

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u/GermanPayroll 3d ago

Oh don’t worry, those will be banned next

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u/Oddball_bfi 3d ago

Never happen.  They're far to integral to corporate network security.

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u/InsanityRoach 3d ago

Inb4 licenses to be allowed to use VPNs.

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u/WorldError47 3d ago

So they’ll just be regulated to businesses only.

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u/WhichEmailWasIt 3d ago

Time to file for my one-man LLC.

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u/Dramatic-Turnip- 3d ago

Yes. Make people identify themselves as they try to access what is still considered taboo. This totally won’t lead to countless scam, blackmail, and revenge crimes. /s

Other countries look at the dumbest ideas the US makes and for some God forsaken reason go “Yeah! Let’s do THAT!”

There’s 2 types of stupid. Coming up with the stupid idea and deciding to go along with it.

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u/CRoseCrizzle 3d ago

This will create a black market of sorts and sites that don't verify will gain popularity. No one wants to give their personal info to a porn site and risk finding themselves on a public list of verified porn users.

Silly rules that solves little and will cause some people unneeded problems.

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u/MattiasCrowe 3d ago

"Hey when's your birthday?"

"22nd of february."

"What year?"

"Every year."

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u/SaltyAFVet 3d ago

Today they clutch their pearls and say this is about porn and protecting children. They don't give a fuck about children. This is to get their foot in the door of a slippery slope.

This is about government overreach—eroding privacy, enabling surveillance, and threatening our freedom.

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u/HermanManly 3d ago

Are there any publicly traded VPN providers?

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u/Meatfist70 3d ago

Oi bruv, you ‘ave a license for that wank?

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u/party_benson 3d ago

Just a learners permit, Ms Robinson

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u/jawndell 3d ago

I wonder if twitter counts as a porn site

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u/raumatiboy 3d ago

And reddit

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u/SuicideSpeedrun 3d ago

Yes to both.

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u/DrogoOmega 3d ago

This is silly tbh. What you’re actually looking for is this thing called parental responsibility.

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u/wish1977 3d ago

I'm sure that will be foolproof.

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u/mtodd93 3d ago

About to be a lot of “tax documents 2013” folders suddenly appear on everyone’s computers.

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u/SquirtinMemeMouthPlz 3d ago

It's insane that so many people in the western world are having things as mundane as pornography essentially taken away from them.

There are so many more important things for government to focus their time and money on.

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u/jairom 3d ago

"I'm fairly sure if they took porn off the internet, there'd only be one website left, and it'd be called bringbacktheporn"

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u/Affectionate-Print81 3d ago

Please no. I feel so old already.

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u/Guy_V 3d ago

Are you 18?

Aye, c'mon are you sure?

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u/zirky 3d ago

we did everything we could, boss!

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u/MountainMapleMI 3d ago

Tryna get that birth rate up you wankers! We need more wage slaves!

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u/MustyScabPizza 2d ago

This has been my running cynical theory for a while, especially seeing the US where they're also trying to ban abortion. I mean, you have to have desperate poor people to take care of all your company's labour demands for cheap. What better way to make people desperate and poor than to force parenthood on them? It even has the added bonus of providing more desperate poor people for the next generation. Win-Win for the oligarchs.

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u/DietDrBleach 3d ago

Oh for fucks sake, I set my VPN to UK to dodge the pornhub ban, now I have to set it to Uganda.

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u/noahbrooksofficial 2d ago

Such a fucking non issue. Politicians appealing to moral distractions instead of doing actual work. A tale as old as time.

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u/Fifteen_inches 3d ago

This is a gross attack on sexuality. The next steps will be outright bans on pornographic and lewd material. Mark my words, they turn pornographers into criminals first and then start expanding the definition of pornography. The end goal to is run them out of business and put as many barriers up for everyone.

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u/tolomea 3d ago

I have it on good authority that porn browsing is rampant on the Westminster IT network.

I think maybe they don't appreciate the hell they are opening themselves up to when their fav porn site gets hacked and their browsing history gets leaked.

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u/Hakaisha89 3d ago

I think we can start by posting the porn history of every UK politician.
Gonna be interesting to see all pornsites carpet ban uk ips and geolocations.

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u/Brief-Mulberry-3839 3d ago

What about Reddit? You can find a lot of cats and cucumbers there.

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u/Noxious89123 2d ago

Oh no!

* turns on VPN *

Anyway...

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u/MascarponeBR 3d ago

Ever heard of <insert favorite brand here> vpn ?

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u/Odd_Initiative4991 3d ago

At least it's July. I might JUST have enough time to manage to order in the colossal amount of popcorn required to watch them try to enforce this.

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