Mr Lucky
Well-known member
What makes it essential?
UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums
- Thread starter lazy llama
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- regulation
zappaDPJ
Well-known member
It's essential if you want to view the ever growing number of sites that block UK access. It appears site owners are geo-blocking the UK not because of the nature of their content but because it means less worry about falling foul of our draconian online laws.
zappaDPJ
Well-known member
And to add to the above, I've just been viewing a UK based site where the majority of the front page is plastered with huge notices proclaiming 'Content not viewable in your region'. You really need to think twice before allowing embedded content on your site.
[EDIT] I'm now seeing multiple sites, many hosted in the UK, displaying whole pages of the image below. I've also had admins and moderators based outside of the UK wondering why they are getting multiple reports from their members asking why they are being content blocked.
So yes in short if you live in the UK, a VPN is now essential because it's only going to get worse.
[EDIT] I'm now seeing multiple sites, many hosted in the UK, displaying whole pages of the image below. I've also had admins and moderators based outside of the UK wondering why they are getting multiple reports from their members asking why they are being content blocked.
So yes in short if you live in the UK, a VPN is now essential because it's only going to get worse.
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webbouk
Well-known member
Another byproduct of the draconian laws, we're based in the UK with a UK hosted site, is more and more users within the UK are turning to VPNs.
The reason - so they don't have to prove their ages when viewing other site content.
This can and does cause issues with anti-spam registration filters as IP addresses don't equal the country the registrant is from. ie registering within the UK but IP says 'Norway' (as an example).
Another issue is that most VPN's have built-in adblockers. I've had to remove a splash screen requesting people remove the site from their adblocker because of too many people seeing it yet not knowing they had an adblock in the first place as it was part of the VPN.
The issue with the UK is that past and present governments set rules and laws based on the lowest common denominator. Someone must sit in an office somewhere trying to think up new ways of protecting a minority of people who can't protect themselves and in doing so come up with a carpet solution that's then implemented with little forward thought.
The reason - so they don't have to prove their ages when viewing other site content.
This can and does cause issues with anti-spam registration filters as IP addresses don't equal the country the registrant is from. ie registering within the UK but IP says 'Norway' (as an example).
Another issue is that most VPN's have built-in adblockers. I've had to remove a splash screen requesting people remove the site from their adblocker because of too many people seeing it yet not knowing they had an adblock in the first place as it was part of the VPN.
The issue with the UK is that past and present governments set rules and laws based on the lowest common denominator. Someone must sit in an office somewhere trying to think up new ways of protecting a minority of people who can't protect themselves and in doing so come up with a carpet solution that's then implemented with little forward thought.
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chillibear
Well-known member
Surely if they have geoblocked the UK then they can't then have a significant UK user base and therefore would fall outside the act? I guess Ofcom could make some arguments depending on the exact timeline geoblocking happened, but that seems a bit unlikely.
I'd been recently thinking along similar lines given the act applies to those in the UK even if they are using a VPN to bypass geoblocking they are still in the UK (hard to tell that however) and so the act applies and how you'd deal with that (realistically you can't), however I then realised that presumably if your only UK traffic is via VPN then it is unlikely to be significant and therefore you'd be exempt under that clause.
I'd been recently thinking along similar lines given the act applies to those in the UK even if they are using a VPN to bypass geoblocking they are still in the UK (hard to tell that however) and so the act applies and how you'd deal with that (realistically you can't), however I then realised that presumably if your only UK traffic is via VPN then it is unlikely to be significant and therefore you'd be exempt under that clause.
zappaDPJ
Well-known member
I can only judge by the amount of blocked content in the UK which does appear to be quite significant. Here's the ICO's take on it:
Statement: Update on Imgur investigation
The thing is whether they host or not if they allow UK access they still have to jump through the same hoops as the rest of us - so online safety assessment/child assessment documentation that is regularly updated, potential age checks, formal and documented complaints processes, nominated points of contact etc - if UK traffic isn't a significant portion of your traffic it simply isn't worth the effort.
chillibear
Well-known member
The Imgur stuff was as I understand it in the context of GDPR laws rather than the OSA over children's data or something (I did skim the original press release, but...), or rather it appears the trigger was the ICO's investigation, of course it could just be Imgur happened to decide they were "done with the UK" anyhow!
Either way it is a timely reminder that if you make things too much faff people will just not bother or bypass, which defeats the purported objective of the law(s) in the first place. I mean I'm guessing knowledge of VPNs and use of them have probably increased greatly since the introduction of the OSA. I've not actually been looking for any stats data, but it'd be interesting to see if anyone has published anything - has VPN usage gone up for instance, has traffic to adult sites dropped off, etc...
Either way it is a timely reminder that if you make things too much faff people will just not bother or bypass, which defeats the purported objective of the law(s) in the first place. I mean I'm guessing knowledge of VPNs and use of them have probably increased greatly since the introduction of the OSA. I've not actually been looking for any stats data, but it'd be interesting to see if anyone has published anything - has VPN usage gone up for instance, has traffic to adult sites dropped off, etc...
zappaDPJ
Well-known member
Widely reported figures at the time the Act came into force suggest VPN usage increased by 1,400% while porn sites reported a 47% decrease in traffic.
Porn site traffic plummets as UK age verification rules enforced
Data suggests leading adult site ******* lost more than one million visitors in two weeks.
www.bbc.co.uk
Forsaken
Well-known member
They did use to allow adult content, and only changed it several years ago.
They do still allow content that falls within the Ofcom guidelines.
That said, Imgur has been trash for a while now, and will likely go the same route as PhotoBucket in the future.
zappaDPJ
Well-known member
UK internet users thinking of entering their PII in order to access age-gated content and services might want to think again.
www.bbc.co.uk
While there's nothing to suggest this example of age-gating is linked to the OSA, it is a good example of why you should think twice before uploading PII rather than employing a VPN.
ID photos of 70,000 users may have been leaked, Discord says
The platform says hackers targeted a firm that helped to verify the ages of its users.
www.bbc.co.uk
While there's nothing to suggest this example of age-gating is linked to the OSA, it is a good example of why you should think twice before uploading PII rather than employing a VPN.