[armada651]

If this becomes law, then yes. But then people will turn to VPS providers instead and set up their own VPNs, which will then prompt a law to demand age verification before renting any server. I wonder how far they're willing to go down this rabbit hole.

[landl0rd]

You're implying pervasive KYC and tying everything to your real-life identity is some unfortunate side-effect rather than a deliberate end. I have contempt for people who pass policies such as these but I do not think them foolish; they are likely aware of what will happen.

[ratelimitsteve]

the purpose of a system is what it does, not what it purports to do. doubly so, if it does what it purports to do poorly but does something else very well. this system purports to protect children from adult content online but what it does is offer a legal justification for eliminating any and all anonymity.

[bigbadfeline]

The people who pass the policies may not know, but the people who formulate and drive the policies know for sure. The Window of Overton is fundamental to today's political environment, more than any other time in history.

[gnarlouse]

Age verification to wake up in the morning, age verification to breathe air, age verification to use the restroom, age verification t...

[rustyhancock]

You got a Loicense for that?

[gjsman-1000]

Not necessarily - how is a kid paying for a VPS server?

A personal debit card (which requires ID verification anyway, and likely has their parents able to see activity)? A personal credit card (which definitely requires ID + 18+)? Stealing their parents' card (works for like 5 days)? Does the VPS company block VPN ports without verification, similar to how most companies handle email? Do you think VPS services have any interest, at all, in an underage clientele?

The proposed law is plenty effective - saying otherwise is like saying kids can bypass age verification at the knife shop or alcohol store by using eBay. No sane mind says that age verification is therefore useless.

[whatshisface]

If having a credit card and the ability to make purchases was good enough as an ID system, they could have simply made it the law instead of requiring tech companies to collect those sweet, sweet personal ID document photos.

[munksbeer]

When they block adult content behind age gates, children still view adult content, via VPN or via websites that have no interest in complying with the UK but may well have worse motivations to access children's data.

Age gating legitimate VPN or VPS will result in the same thing. Children will end up using less safe services to view what they want to view.

When my children are old enough, if we're still in the UK, I will be providing them with enough education to avoid ill intentioned sites, and will also provide them with a private VPN.

We learn nothing from history.

[CrossVR]

> Not necessarily - how is a kid paying for a VPS server?

The same way the kid is somehow paying for a VPN apparently.

[subscribed]

They can buy the server without KY paying with crypto or PayPal (11+ can have debit cards in the UK).

Or ask their parents.

[gruez]

>If this becomes law, then yes.

Or they just operate outside of UK jurisdiction, in which case they can politely decline. Any executives/directors of said company might be liable to arrest if they decide to vacation in uk, though.

[HDThoreaun]

The UK already has ISP's blocking sites. Anyone that ignores the law will be blocked, will be interesting to see what happens if they end up blocking one of the cloud megascalers.

[brightball]

Watching laws like this play out in real time adds some color to the other discussion about software in Europe right now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668#46769847

[dlisboa]

All of this would easily be solved by just banning social media. Nothing will convince me they are a net-positive to society.

[eikenberry]

I don't think social media needs to be banned, but maybe using complex algorithms to drive attention should be. Even Facebook was pretty good back when its feed was a simple, chronological display of all your friends posts and nothing else. It went down the tubes as they moved away from that.

[bigbadfeline]

If you apply the logic of your comment's parent to your suggestion you'll discover that banning social media would soon lead to using any and all communication under mandatory supervision and only after an application and a written permission for every individual act of communication.

[retired]

At the risk of doing a "you participate in society", would that include HN?

[PaulKeeble]

Severely disabled people need social media to get any form of communication with others. It is a key mechanism of infrastructure that provides connection for those limit to their homes and bed, which nowadays is an increasing amount of people with Long Covid and ME/CFS patients. We are talking about 10s of millions of people here that you would cut off from each other and the wider world.

Social media isn't just bad interactions, there isn't just one twitter or reddit, its about what you choose to read and interact with and most of its not toxic its just people talking on the same topic.

[mghackerlady]

The government shouldn't be limiting any legal communications over the internet