Reminder that if you come across sites that are geoblocking the UK thanks to the #onlinesafetyact please let us know here

Also thank you @neil for getting this transparency project for OSA site removals going!
https://www.blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks

Is the implementation of the UK #onlinesafetyact tomorrow going to go smoothly, or will it be a complete car crash? '#hivemind

@neil I guess this isn't a completely hypothetical question, because I'm now considering building a minimally invasive age assurance service, if I can figure out how to meet the minimum requirements

#OnlineSafetyAct

@neil I'm still struggling to work out what the absolute minimum service that would qualify as “highly effective age assurance” would look like

#OnlineSafetyAct

Today - 25 July - is the deadline for user-to-user services subject to the UK's Online Safety Act to have "highly effective age assurance" in place for UK users, if the site's content requires it. (Not all sites/content require age assurance.)

*Please* be careful, especially if you are in the UK.

Think before handing over ID documents, and be especially mindful of mistyped URLs and other scams, trying to obtain your personal data for phishing or blackmail purposes.

#OnlineSafetyAct

Sexual Health subreddits r/STD and r/SafeSex are being blocked for under 18s due to the Online Safety Act. An issue for those aged 16-18 who might well go there for advice. #onlinesafetyact #reddit #sexualhealth

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

For what it's worth there is a petition asking to repeal the badly planned and implemented #OnlineSafetyAct

@girlonthenet “The purpose of a system is what it does,” so the purpose of the #OnlineSafetyAct is to ban pornography.

Porn sites: Ofcom guidance prohibits us from indicating that a VPN might circumvent our age assurance process.

BBC: so there's these things called VPNs...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k81lj8nvpo

#OnlineSafetyAct

Age assurance is a red flag. A big one 🚩

By not requiring regulation of the industry in the Online Safety Act, UK users are thrown into a wild west of privacy and security standards.

Sign our letter to demand the UK government regulates the industry NOW ⬇️

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/sign-open-letter-dsit-regulating-age-assurance

#onlinesafetyact #privacy #cybersecurity #ageverification #ageassurance #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #onlinesafety

Millions of UK users will be asked to upload ID documents or have a biometric facial scan to check their age.

You'll do this with different providers for different platforms without a regulatory guarantee.

This multiplies the risk of phishing, sextortion, data breaches and data reuse.

#onlinesafetyact #privacy #cybersecurity #ageverification #ageassurance #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #onlinesafety

UK users have no choice with age assurance.

You must use the methods and provider picked by the platform that you're trying to access.

❌ Providers aren't required to meet specific privacy or security standards.

❌ Platforms don't have to choose trusted or certified providers.

You should be able to pick a provider that can be used interoperably across every platform.

#onlinesafetyact #privacy #cybersecurity #ageverification #ageassurance #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #onlinesafety

The UK Online Safety Act requires age assurance to restrict access to porn AND any content that could be ‘harmful’ for under 18s.

If UK users don't submit to these checks, they'll either be blocked from accessing the platform entirely, or features like DMs and certain content will be restricted.

And what amounts to 'harmful' content is open to broad interpretation.

#onlinesafetyact #privacy #cybersecurity #ageverification #ageassurance #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #onlinesafety

Alt...

Quote from James Baker, ORG Programme Manager: "The British public is being forced to hand over sensitive personal data to unregulated age assurance providers if they want to have full access to platforms such as Reddit and Bluesky or Grindr."

@neil ohhh.... Not even thought about them.

Still, I'm sure the experts at #ofcom have...

Right?

.... Right ?

#onlineSafetyAct

IDs at the ready 🪪

Age assurance requirements under the UK Online Safety Act kick in this Friday.

UK users will have to hand over their sensitive data to cyber bouncers without being sure they'll protect their privacy.

ORG is calling for these age assurance providers to be regulated ⬇️

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/org-calls-for-age-assurance-industry-to-be-regulated/

#onlinesafetyact #privacy #cybersecurity #ageverification #ageassurance #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #onlinesafety

Every little website is being pushed onto Facebook thanks to the computer illiterate duckheads in UK Parliament. We'll played MPs, people are much more vulnerable on Facebook you cuckwombles 🤬

#uk #OnlineSafetyAct

Alt...

A post on the Renault EV Club website saying they have closed down the website and moved to Facebook because of the UK online safety act.

‘Death Of A #Forum: How The UK’s #OnlineSafetyAct Is Killing #Communities.’

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/20/death-of-a-forum-how-the-uks-online-safety-act-is-killing-communities/

And so it begins…

(Also, 12,000 new signatures on the petition in the past 5 days?!)

#OnlineSafetyAct
https://toot.community/@fehrtrade/114863256556553042

Alt...

Screenshot of Discord with the heading “Age-Restricted Channel” and the text “This channel is marked as age-restricted because it contains adult content. Do you want to verify your age group to access this channel?”

Alt...

Screenshot of Discord with the heading “Verify age group” and the text: “We use age groups to determine access to certain experiences. This process is fast and easy - here's how it works: 1 Take a video selfie or scan your ID These are not stored after the verification is completed 2 Follow the steps 3 They're quick and easy We'll DM you the results”

The #OnlineSafetyAct has been disastrous for small UK online communities and indepdent producers of adult content. If you’re in the #UK and want a web that’s not just for those companies big enough to afford verification services, please sign this petition against the act’s ridiculous overreach and hopefully persuade the government to rethink things. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

The domain I host my social media on is old enough to have its own social media account.

#OnlineSafetyAct

Lots of chat in the press and on Laura K this morning about the Online Safety Act and the upcoming age verification requirement.

Two points:

• “The EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation] notes that no age verification method exists that is both accurate and respects user privacy.”

• “Experts consider age-gating to be largely ineffective. After all, teens who are unfamiliar with VPNs can easily learn about them.”

Just sayin’.

https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/supreme-court-upholds-texass-porn-site-age-verification-law-155007840.html

#OnlineSafetyAct #OSA #AgeVerification

"Email-based age assurance" has been deemed to be (capable of being) "highly effective" under the UK's #OnlineSafetyAct

Annoyingly, this means data sharing and only works if someone uses the same email address with multiple third parties.

My email address is well above the age of majority in the UK, but surely "Neil likes to reply in-line and signs email with GPG" is a good enough indication of grey-beardedness anyway.

@openrightsgroup Unlikely to be successful, but those who object to the implementation of the #OnlineSafetyAct should sign the petition... https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

I can't see how masto instances can avoid getting embroiled in this. It will come for us...

Well well... Better late than never... #OnlineSafetyAct

Alt...

A letter from the House of Commons

Age verification is a goldrush for providers who don’t need certification.

The risks to the privacy and security of our sensitive personal data are high.

It didn’t need to be this way. Our digital rights should come first.

Our website explains what the UK Online Safety Act means for users and site owners with age verification ⬇️

https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk/

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol

The UK Online Safety Act could’ve required proper regulation of age verification providers and given us a choice.

We should be able to pick a provider with high privacy standards that can work for any and every platform. It could and should be interoperable.

Instead, we either accept what we’re given or lose access to chunks of the Internet.

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol

Bluesky will be age-gating content for UK users. It’s your privacy that pays.

The UK Online Safety Act has unleashed an unregulated market in age verification.

That we have to do these intrusive checks with countless providers for different platforms is dangerous.

https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verification-uk-online-safety-act

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol #bluesky

Bluesky is starting age verification in the UK on July 25

"We’ll use Epic Games’ Kids Web Services (KWS) to give our UK community choices about how to verify their age. If you’re in the UK, you can choose between methods like payment card verification, ID scans, and face scans. (See here to learn more about how KWS safeguards user information.) For people who are under 18 or don’t want to go through this process, we’ll make adult-appropriate content inaccessible, and we’ll disable features like direct messaging."

"Highly effective age assurance” is a requirement of the Online Safety Act, so they don't really have a lot of choice. Still, not good! And with the US Supreme Court recently upholding Texas' age verification law, we should expect to see similar policies in other geographies.

#bluesky #OnlineSafetyAct

If you're wondering about how the Online Safety Act applies here in the fediverse ... it's complicated.

@iftas has a lot of resources at https://connect.iftas.org/library/legal-regulatory/online-safety-act/

#OnlineSafetyAct #fediverse

@neil , are you still curating that list of sites that deny access to UK IP addresses because of the #OnlineSafetyAct? If so, the second link above (not Lobsters) is eligible to be added to the list at

https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/

@lobsters

Want to know more about age verification, age assurance and what it means for your privacy online?

ORG has developed a website with key facts and advice on what the UK Online Safety Act means for you.

Find out more ⬇️

https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk/

#ageverification #ageassurance #OnlineSafetyAct #privacy #ukpolitics #ukpol

As age verification providers are not regulated, users could face providing their sensitive data over and over across different platforms.

This means ID documents could be sent off to other countries and some sites will pick providers with poor privacy terms and conditions.

We must have a choice!

#ageverification #ageassurance #OnlineSafetyAct #privacy #ukpolitics #ukpol

Grindr is rolling out age verification for UK users to comply with the Online Safety Act.

The Act lets platforms choose the provider to do these checks and requires no certification for high privacy standards.

Users deserve to have their data handled securely.

https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/grindr-introduces-age-verification-for-uk-based-users-486823/

#ageverification #ageassurance #OnlineSafetyAct #privacy #ukpolitics #ukpol #grindr

How can I use machine learning to *quickly* determine if an image is NSFW¹?

I've been playing with https://huggingface.co/Marqo/nsfw-image-detection-384

That takes about 60 seconds per image.
To scan all the images on OpenBenches would take about 2 months!

I don't want to send images to a remote service; I need to run this locally.

Any suggestions?

¹ (I know that "NSFW" is vague. But, for my purposes, nudity and anything sexual.)

#OnlineSafetyAct #AI #MachineLearning

@neil Well the #OnlineSafetyAct already claims that kind of extraterritorial scope, so the fact that it’s impractical doesn’t mean the politicians won’t try to do it. 🙄

I have finally done some template/sample policies and processes to help small providers with the myriad paperwork obligations in the UK's Online Safety Act 2023.

Feedback, of course, is welcome:

https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/online_safety_act_policies_and_processes/

They go hand in hand with the template/sample terms that I prepared a while back:

https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/online_safety_act_terms/

#OnlineSafetyAct