Reddit Starts Verifying Ages of Users In the UK (bbc.com) 24
Reddit has begun verifying users' ages in the UK to restrict access to "certain mature content" for minors, complying with the UK's Online Safety Act. The BBC reports: Reddit, known for its online communities and discussions, said that while it does not want to know who its audience is: "It would be helpful for our safety efforts to be able to confirm whether you are a child or an adult." Ofcom, the UK regulator, said: "We expect other companies to follow suit, or face enforcement if they fail to act." Reddit said that from 14 July, an outside firm called Persona will perform age verification for the social media platform either through an uploaded selfie or "a photo of your government ID," such as a passport. It said Reddit will not have access to the photo and will only retain a user's verification status and date of birth so people do not have to re-enter it each time they try to access restricted content. Reddit added that Persona "promises not to retain the picture for longer than seven days" and will not have access to a user's data on the site. The new rules in the UK come into force on 25 July. [...]
Companies that fail to meet the rules face fines of up to 18 million pounds or 10% of worldwide revenue, "whichever is greater." [Ofcom] added that in the most serious cases, it can seek a court order for "business disruption measures," such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring Internet Service Providers to block access to a site in the UK."
Companies that fail to meet the rules face fines of up to 18 million pounds or 10% of worldwide revenue, "whichever is greater." [Ofcom] added that in the most serious cases, it can seek a court order for "business disruption measures," such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring Internet Service Providers to block access to a site in the UK."
Censorship is fascist! (Score:1)
Please, help us circumvent it!
Re: (Score:2)
Who elected the fascists?
For Subreddits Dedicated to Porn (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
These Companies Are Fucked (Score:4, Interesting)
an uploaded selfie or "a photo of your government ID," such as a passport.
You have to do the full Know Your Customer(KYC) registration for Reddit? Their next earnings report will be discussing a massive plunge in visits and ad revenue.
This whole formal identification to use internet sites is a disaster. Worst of all, it has no effect on violators. Kids know how to get porn. Crooks know how to get crypto/bank/phone service without KYC. These companies are fucked.
Re:These Companies Are Fucked (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup. But this wasn't ever about protecting children. These laws are about shaming people, and asserting dominance over those who like things that they don't, and about compiling an easily subpoenaed list of people whom they consider deviants.
If the laws were really about protecting children, they would have passed a law requiring browser vendors to provide age check support in a privacy-protecting way.
Re: (Score:2)
A browser nanny is no better than a webserver nanny. Not at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
NEARLY ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS ARE FAKE AND EVERY PLATFORM IS KNOWINGLY CATERING TO SCAMMERS AND SPAMMERS OPERATING SWARMS OF ACCOUNTS IN ORDER TO MANUFACTURE FAKE USER METRICS.
Reddit is an ongoing criminal conspiracy and we all know it and we also know that KYC does actually stop that kind of criminal conspiracy. Every single crypto or sales platform that adds KYC, fails as a result. That absolutely means that the accoun
Re: (Score:1)
Are you serious?
Re: (Score:3)
Reddit's current CEO admitted to filling their platform with fake users and fake content from the very beginning(https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/reddit-faked-its-first-users-resurfaced-video-shows-co-founder-alexis-ohanian-admitting-99-of-early-submissions-were-fabricated/articleshow/119263428.cms?from=mdr).
Anyone trying to def
Re: (Score:1)
I guess you're serious.
So, I'll just respond that anyone should be able to pay anyone else, without knowing who they are, with the possible exception of a business owned by more than one person.
and... (Score:2)
reddit dies a little more. This is like a death of a thousand cuts.
Fake picture? (Score:1)
I wonder what's stopping someone from using someone else's picture or AI generated image and then taking a picture of that.
I can't remember the last time I was on Reddit (Score:4, Funny)
Must have been years. I'm feeling like a proper adult right now.
Backups at the ready (Score:2)
In preparation for the 25 July I've backed up about 1TB of my favourite porn onto my cloud-backed NAS.
I'm all set and ready for years to come.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So what you're saying is you're ready to come for years.
Re: (Score:3)
In preparation for the 25 July I've backed up about 1TB of my favourite porn onto my cloud-backed NAS.
There's porn on Reddit? Seems to me it's mostly just people spamming their OnlyFans teasers in NSFW subs that allow such self-promotion, and slyly asking to be DMed (so they can send you their OnlyFans link, obviously) in subs that don't.
Ever since the great PornHub purge, most of what's online these days is just someone trying to get you to unzip your... pocket book.
The internet was a regulatory arbitrage... (Score:3)
If KYC breaks a platform, then it means that platform was crooked. Full stop. If your platform involves transferring money between accounts, then KYC is obviously needed. If any of these platforms actually stuck to their purported business model, communication between users, then this would be an insane invasion of privacy but these platforms decided to financialize themselves and pay users to post.
Reddit turned itself into a transnational payment systems by choice. Of course they need KYC.
Online age verification is impossible (Score:3)
Kids are smart and can easily find workarounds
Nanny State At Its Best (Greatest Hits Edition) (Score:2)
Anyway, for the rest of us, what some think of as an annoyance will probably just be a unique opportunity for vendors of VPN services to easily gain market share.
The entire thing will just place undue burden and complexity for these sites to satisfy the Nanny State, and help contribute to some epic-sized data leaks.
#wha
Re: (Score:2)
It's kind of scary that those who enact these rules don't realize how much more motivated teenagers will be, because they'll have the added thrill of accessing something that's forbidden.
It's scary that technologists don't realize there are other regulated businesses in the US, UK, an EU that all require age verification and somehow they all manage to comply.