UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums

Alvin63 said:
Any tips for good sites for that would be appreciated.
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The obvious one is Amazon but I’ve heard once they realise you are a forum they pull the account. Not sure if it’s the same.

I’d suggest you contact the hamster food and accessories companies and distributors and negotiate directly with for affiliate partnership or banners ads.
 
Thanks. Tried that a few times in the past. Big companies aren’t interested and it wouldn’t go down well with the membership as many sell unsuitable products for profit. Suitable ones tend to be smaller companies with no budget.
 
This might sound silly but.. we are on a Xenforo forum... so how is Xenforo the company complying with the law here? Would be interested to know, and although I have a license I do not recall any age verification happening when I joined etc?
 
FidoMike said:
This might sound silly but.. we are on a Xenforo forum... so how is Xenforo the company complying with the law here? Would be interested to know, and although I have a license I do not recall any age verification happening when I joined etc?
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There isn't a requirement to have age verification - depending on the outcome of a risk assessment.
 
Interesting. Supposedly the Kids Web Service is totally free for developers ... https://www.kidswebservices.com/en-US
KWS is entirely free of charge

Parental consent, particularly verification, can be a costly barrier to developers making their digital experiences available to all. KWS has no upfront cost, recurring charges, or volume restrictions. Whether you’re building an app with hundreds of millions of active users or an indie launching a new game, the service remains free for both developers and parents.
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Documentation is here: https://dev.epicgames.com/docs/kids-web-services/get-started
 
There's this as well. All adult users of the internet in the EU required to use an app

visitukraine.today

Age verification on social media in the EU from 2025: how the new app will work and what Ukrainians should prepare for

From July 1, 2025, social media and streaming services in the EU will require age verification through a special app. Find out who will be affected by the new rules, how verification will work, and what will change for Ukrainians
visitukraine.today visitukraine.today

"The project has started, with technical specifications, source code and a beta release of the solution already published."

The EU approach to age verification

The European Commission is working towards an EU-harmonised approach to age verification.
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu

"This app will appear in July 2025 and is intended to function as a temporary interim solution until the digital identity card is introduced in November 2025. Currently, a source code of the Android version is available on GitHub."

itdaily.com

EU launches temporary app for age verification in July

The European Commission is introducing an application that allows EU users to prove whether they are old enough for certain websites.
itdaily.com itdaily.com

Google "age estimation" for youtube and connecticut banning algorithmic recommendations for under age users without parental consent - plus blocking children from social media between midnight and 6am and capping time use at 1 hour a day.

www.biometricupdate.com

YouTube, Meta lean into age assurance in 2025 | Biometric Update

In the past twelve months, age assurance for online content has gone from a relatively niche issue to a priority agenda item for governments.
www.biometricupdate.com www.biometricupdate.com
 
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Alvin63 said:
Interesting - so is that a way of getting free age verification? I don't quite understand what it does.
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It would appear so. The underlying verification systems are documented here: https://dev.epicgames.com/docs/kids-web-services/pv-service/verification-methods letting you know which providers are actually supplying services, so you'll see some familiar names like Yoti and so forth. So obviously if EPIC are covering the costs and providing this for free they are presumably getting something of value from it. At best a warm fuzzy feeling at worst I guess some user data.

Alvin63 said:
All adult users of the internet in the EU required to use an app
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At least it looks like this is (at present) mostly targeted at sites that are properly intended for adults not just ones where reading something you don't like might upset you. Come back the Internet of the 90s all is forgiven!
 
Thanks - I still don't quite understand it 🤣 It talks about a parent verification service. So the EU are planning on a digital identity card for 2026. Maybe the Uk will go that way too. If everyone has a digital identity card, presumably that can just be scanned (QR code or something) for age verification, on entering a website.
 
Alvin63 said:
Thanks - I still don't quite understand it 🤣 It talks about a parent verification service. So the EU are planning on a digital identity card for 2026. Maybe the Uk will go that way too. If everyone has a digital identity card, presumably that can just be scanned (QR code or something) for age verification, on entering a website.
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That's like what us Aussies have!
It's called a working with children check. It's a plastic card telling them that they aren't dangerous around kids
 
Channel 4 in the UK have released a 2 part documentary on the suicide forum (the don't name it) and it covers the investigation and arrest of the poison supplier in May 2023, he's schedule for trial for January 2026.

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As of last week they're still finding potential victims, as many as 99 in the UK alone.

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Well 24th July has been and gone. I haven't noticed a lot different on big social media sites. I haven't been asked to verify my age anywhere. Anyone else? Can't see mention of the OSA in Youtube's Terms - which seem to have been last updated on 17th March.
 
YouTube (not logged in) now tells me that my advertising has been adjusted because they are unable to ensure I am over eighteen. Then again I don't wander around that much these days on the old Interwebs.
 
Alvin63 said:
Well 24th July has been and gone. I haven't noticed a lot different on big social media sites. I haven't been asked to verify my age anywhere. Anyone else? Can't see mention of the OSA in Youtube's Terms - which seem to have been last updated on 17th March.
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Reddit
 
Alvin63 said:
Well 24th July has been and gone. I haven't noticed a lot different on big social media sites. I haven't been asked to verify my age anywhere. Anyone else? Can't see mention of the OSA in Youtube's Terms - which seem to have been last updated on 17th March.
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I think it's only social media
 
Alvin63 said:
I haven't been asked to verify my age anywhere. Anyone else?
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So far just the odd Reddit, Discord and YouTube plus one adult site not directly related to pornography. According to the BBC, 6,000 adult related sites are now sitting behind age verification. Are there really that many?!:eek:

www.bbc.co.uk

UK to see 6,000 porn sites verifying user age, Ofcom says

Despite the law some remain sceptical about the effectiveness of porn age checks.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Interestingly I've already seen multiple videos detailing easy methods to circumvent age verification without the need to employ a VPN.


[EDIT] Just to add to the above...

www.bbc.co.uk

VPNs top App Store charts as Online Safety Act age checks kick in

Experts say free versions of such apps or services may carry potential security and privacy risks.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

:rolleyes:
 
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MentaL said:
Reddit
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I've been logged in on reddit, youtube, X and instagram and not been asked to verify anything! It's possible youtube know I'm over 18 having been asked to verify once a few months ago and I log into reddit with the google account. X and Instagram haven't asked me to verify anything, Maybe they have algorhythms that know you're an adult by previous content or something.
 
I guess youtube do have something in place. I went on with a private browser (not logged in) and the stream shown was all safe stuff. If I searched for something related to adult content a video was greyed out. If you clicked on it you were asked to verify your age to watch it. So I guess youtube is big enough it can filter all its millions of videos into categories.
 
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