[andiareso]

All US companies should boycott the UK in solidarity. See how fast the regulators walk back the bill.

[cft]

why would they? This is great for the large media corps:

- Increases barrier to entry for smaller competitors

- Reliable user data (age, race, who knows what else) derived from video age verification

Anecdote:

My mom recently visited Spain. The process of buying a local SIM card was as follows:

• Show your US passport at a major local cellular provider’s store (Movistar) to have its number associated with the SIM.

• During SIM activation, open a browser page that accesses the phone’s camera.

• Scan the first page of your passport.

• Point the selfie camera at your face, then close your eyes and smile when prompted.

[joemi]

> then close your eyes and smile when prompted

I was about to ask about this, but then I realized it must so that you can't just point it at a photo of someone.

[platevoltage]

We can't even get American companies to take a stand against authoritarianism in their own country.

[crimsoneer]

The UK law is significantly less stringent and better thought out than equivalent age verification laws already in place in a bunch of US states....

[nemomarx]

I think those age verification laws don't target as many sites though, right? not Wikipedia at least

[nonethewiser]

Ah yes, what about the US.

Which law are you talking about by the way?

I was mostly familiar with laws that required porn companies to verify their user's age. That is a lot more targeted and less offensive than UK Online Safety Act Regulations IMO. I mean it's already illegal to distribute porn to minors - that's just requiring them to enforce it at the expense of porn watcher's anonymity. Whereas the UK Online Safety Act is more like a backdoor for content moderation across the internet.