Drifts of online age verification in the United Kingdom

Since July 25. Therefore, many online platforms have been obliged to check the age of their users in the United Kingdom. Similarly, The objective is noble: to prevent minors from falling on pornographic or violent content. Similarly, But the application of the Safety Act online. In addition, left to the good care of the services, causes a lot of eddies.

Since last week across the Channel. Meanwhile, online platforms must check whether their users are the age required to consult pornography, content encouraging in self -control and other harmful content. For example, Sites for adults, first targeted by theOnline Safety Actwere executed. Furthermore, But the law also affects social networks and a priori unrelated services such as Xbox or Spotify.

When the protection of minors threatens information

And this is not without posing serious problems in terms of public debate. Nevertheless, even drifts online age verification united freedom of expression. A survey of the BBC shows indeed that sites like X (formerly Twitter). Reddit massively restrict access to content which are however of public interest.

Videos of the war in Ukraine. the conflict in Gaza (presenting no graphic imaging), an extract of discourse from a deputy on gangs of rapists, and even the image of the painting Saturn devouring her son De Goya has thus become inaccessible to unaccounts.

These contents are filtered by messages of the type: ” Due to local laws. we temporarily restrict access until your age is estimated ». On Reddit, entire communities have become inaccessible without connection, in particular those linked to Ukraine or health.

Experts point to the fact that these blockages are likely to stifle public debate. that they show disproportionate zeal of companies in the face of the law. It must be said that the sanctions are significant: they drifts online age verification united can go up to 18 million pounds sterling (more than 20 million euros). 10 % of global turnover.

It is up to companies to implement the appropriate measures to respect the law. However. human resources are lacking to apply the text: the moderation teams have been greatly reduced in X as in Meta. The filtering errors are therefore inevitable.

So there are adjustments to make and clarification to give. Because the vagueness remains. which could push Wikipedia to set up a limit of access to its pages in the United Kingdom by establishing a monthly quota! The Wikimedia function. which manages the online encyclopedia, does not want to hear about a verification of the identity of its anonymous contributors as well as its visitors, which would endanger their privacy as well as the neutrality of the encyclopedia.

The Foundation thus considers that the requirements of the law expose Wikipedia to drifts online age verification united manipulation. vandalism, while diverting resources which would be better used to improve the site. To avoid having to check the age of Internet users. the site must remain under a defined threshold of visitors, hence this wacky idea of quota.

British experimentation. its consequences are certainly closely monitored by other countries which, like France, also want to set up age verification systems. Will the abuses and excesses of online Safety Act constitute an alert for other governments? This text. which was intended to be a bulwark against harmful content, especially illustrates the difficulty of reconciling protection of minors, respect for privacy and free expression of the public debate.

Read the age verification on porn sites already bypassed by British Internet users. with the help of a video game

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