The UK says this is about tackling non-consensual intimate images. But when compliance pushes platforms toward automated detection and faster removals, privacy is squeezed for everyone.
Are we fighting abuse without normalising surveillance? www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Bx... #OnlineSafetyAct #Privacy
Moving to an OnlyFans-style verification system could mean requiring users to submit credit card details or identity documents such as passports to ensure unrestricted access to some of the UK's most popular apps. It is unclear if this would require new powers or involve Ofcom enforcing the OSA's existing guidelines more strictly.
OnlyFans-style age checks should be social media standard, says Starmer www.ft.com/content/482a... (£)
Are we still pretending this is about porn or protecting children?
#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #masssurveillance #ageverification #digitalID #openweb #techpolicy
Content not viewable in your region.
Here's a bit of stupidness and I can only assume its because of the #OnlineSafetyAct. So as a PSA; if you use Imgur as an external image host on your website, it will get blocked in the UK and replaced with "Content not viewable in your region" regardless of what the original content was.
Lords want a #socialmediaban on all online services covered by the #OnlineSafetyAct in place within 12 months; plus ban extended to children using #VPNs This goes much further than original aim of restricting teens from social media and would affect everyone.
In December last year, Roblox rolled out new features to prevent children from chatting with adults they do not know by making users who wish to use the chat function pass through facial age assurance that then groups them in similar age group cohorts until they turn 21. Since the shift, Roblox has monitored account behaviour to detect signs that the user might have been younger than the age they appeared in facial age estimation, with some parents being discovered in the process. "When we went and did the validation tests on that, you could see the kid in the background who handed the phone to their parent," said Matt Kaufman, Roblox's chief of safety. “So that's why we have these systems in place."
Parents are being used to circumvent highly effective age assurance – should they be banned? Write to your MP www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#OnlineSafetyAct #ageverification #gaming #childrights #openweb #techpolicy
The UK is seeking to grant ministers wide-ranging new powers to rewrite significant portions of the Online Safety Act through amendments tucked into two unrelated bills, a move that could bypass normal parliamentary scrutiny.
#OnlineSafetyAct #AI #UKPolitics
www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-online...
dragon-in-a-fez from tumblr keep thinking about how I wrote in my dissertation about how every time a new form of public/social space emerges it's immediately popular with kids and teenagers who see it as a chance at freedom and then adults colonise it and kick them out. this happened with malls in the 80s and diners in the 50s and pool halls in the 20s. my dad was doing research on this trend in like 1975. and I was like "yeah so this is going to happen to the internet" and then five years later every government suddenly decided to ban kids from everywhere online. I hate being right especially when I don't even get paid for it
Screenshot of a clause from a document of motions relating to Lords Amendments to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The text reads: "3. Regulations under paragraph 1 may (a) make provision amending, repealing, revoking or applying (with or without modifications) any provision of the data protection legislation (within the meaning given by section 3(9) of the Data Protection Act 2018);"
The same implication is given to this one, amendments to the #ChildrensWellbeingAndSchoolsBill, in which it says in a few places that the #SecretaryOfState can amend the #OnlineSafetyAct in any way to restrict "children's" ability to access the internet.
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
Screenshot of a clause from amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, in relation to using deepfake generation software. The text reads: "Section 367: After Clause 195, insert the following new Clause—'Power to amend Online Safety Act 2023.' Power to amend Online Safety Act 2023: AI. (1) The Online Safety Act 2023 is amended as follows. (2) After section 216 insert— 'Power to amend Act: illegal AI-generated content etc 216A Power to amend Act in relation to illegal AI-generated content etc (1) Subject to subsection 14b, the Secretary of State may by regulations amend any provision of this Act for or in connection with the purposes of-'" and then the text is cut off at the bottom of the page.
In other parts of this, conveniently split by the end of a page, §367 is worded in a way some've interpreted to allow the #SecretaryOfState to amend the #OnlineSafetyAct without ANY input from #Parliament, the people we supposedly elected to represent us.
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
A majority of Australian children still use restricted social media apps despite the ban for under-16s, major new polling of young people shows. Three in five (61%) Australian 12-15 year-olds who had accounts on restricted platforms before the ban came into force still have access to one or more accounts. Major platforms have retained a majority of their child users, with 53% of previous TikTok users, 53% of YouTube users and 52% of Instagram users still able to access an account on these platforms. The first major polling of 1,050 children aged 12-15 was conducted by Molly Rose Foundation and YouthInsight, Australia's largest online youth panel. Molly Rose Foundation warns this data raises major question marks about the effectiveness of Australia's social media ban, and that given the findings it would be a 'high stakes gamble' for the UK to follow suit at this stage.
This will shock you but …
More than 60% of Australian children still using social media despite ban for under-16s, research shows mollyrosefoundation.org/more-than-60...
#OnlineSafetyAct #socialmediaban #childrights #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
I'm a software engineer & 20yr Labour member: my open letter to the PM on our dangerous trajectory. Banning VPNs & mandating device scanning demolishes privacy for everyone:
www.jimmyff.co.uk/blog/open-le...
cc: @openrightsgroup.org @eff.org
#DigitalPrivacy #Encryption #UKpolitics #OnlineSafetyAct
#Starmer's DESPISED #RedToryGovernment is seeking to grant ministers wide-ranging new powers to REWRITE significant portions of the #OnlineSafetyAct. Using #HenryVIII clauses,LIMITING #Parliament to a simple yes-or-no vote, RATHER than FULL DEBATE or AMENDMENT!
www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-online...
Latest UK Government amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, mostly bans and additional powers related to porn publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
Other Bill docs bills.parliament.uk/bills/3938/p...
#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Meta pulls Facebook ads recruiting for social media addiction lawsuits
Mr. Zuckerberg is quaking in his boots.
Big news… you fucked shit up for a lot of people and now must repair the damage by paying what you owe.
#FuckMeta
#FuckBook
#UK
#OnlineSafetyAct
The public will be better protected from vile online pornography under new Government amendments tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill today (Friday, April 10). Building on the Government's work to tackle violence against women and girls, pornography depicting illegal sexual conduct between family members and adults roleplaying as children will be criminalised. The first of these vital measures will ban anyone from possessing or publishing harmful pornography that shows incest between family members, and sex between step or foster relations where one person is pretending to be under 18. A further amendment will criminalise the publication and possession of pornography where an adult is roleplaying as a child.
New laws to crackdown on harmful pornography www.gov.uk/government/n...
The UK's Crime and Policing Bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/3938/p...
#OnlineSafetyAct -adjacent #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
So the UK has signed up to:
"42. State authorities should not directly or indirectly impose a general obligation on intermediaries to monitor content which they merely give access to or which they transmit or store, be it by automated means or not."
Has anyone told DSIT or Ofcom? #OnlineSafetyAct
"City grandee" Ian Cheshire has been announced as the next chair of Ofcom www.gov.uk/government/n...
In fairness, probably the safest choice given that the other short-listed candidates were a Tory MP and Margaret Hodge
#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
So @steampowered.com @valvesoftware.com have begun to require a Credit Card for UK Adults to access games on the storefront. Less than 50% of UK Adults have a Credit Card. No alternative options are provided. #onlinesafetyact
A survivor of such intimate image abuse, referred to as Jane (not her real name), and The End Violence Against Women Coalition ("EVAW") have instructed solicitors Leigh Day and sent a Pre-Action Protocol letter to Ofcom threatening to bring a judicial review, accusing it of turning a blind eye to the abuse that Jane and countless other women and girls have suffered at the hands of such "collector culture" image-sharing forums. Intimate images of women and girls are posted to these forums and categorised by area as specific as their town, village or university halls of residence, putting victims at serious risk of physical harm offline in the real world, such as stalking, as well as online.
Ofcom faces judicial review over alleged failure to act on intimate image abuse www.mishcon.com/news/ofcom-f...
Just a pre-action protocol letter at this point
#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Can we protect kids online without nudging the whole UK toward wider age checks?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTyB...
#Privacy #DigitalRights #OnlineSafetyAct
Taken together, Ofcom and the Online Safety Act provide a rare example of how the UK could be genuinely inspirational. The existential question for liberal democracies now is whether they can tame tech giants. We know it can be done by authoritarian regimes – as China demonstrates. Democracies, though, are struggling. Any move to challenge tech monopolies involves wading through legal treacle for years, with no guarantee of success.
Tech columnist John Naughton says the position of new Ofcom chair "appears to have gone to" businessman Ian Cheshire (rather than Margaret Hodge, the lulz candidate)
Naughton's usual bad take, in the Tortoise Observer observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Greetings, Xyphen-ers! We are officially dropping a Xyphen file sharing solution. Recently, 0x0 shut down with no prior warning, due to AI abuse. We hope to revive it, with a 5GB limit and file retention for up to half a year!
Check us out: xyphen.org
#Xyphen #OnlineSafetyAct #DataPrivacy
Which party has earned trust in digital privacy?
Tories built the Online Safety Act. Labour is enforcing age checks. Digital ID is still moving.
That is why so many people distrust the lot.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sbs...
Who do you trust least?
#DigitalPrivacy #OnlineSafetyAct #DigitalID
Age Verification causing people to stop installing security updates on iPhone
https://alecmuffett.com/article/153062
#AgeVerification #OnlineSafety #OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #irony #surveillance
@ofcom.bsky.social Chair job spec: a particular focus is #onlinesafety
Successful candidate (according to @financialtimes.com): no relevant experience.
Hard to see the logic, esp when #DSIT SofS has spent months berating the regulator over #onlinesafetyact enforcement
www.ft.com/content/bdcc...
The #OnlineSafetyAct shifts responsibility onto victims. Trying to 'protect' them means increased surveillance on us all.
Where's the focus on perpetrators? Bit inconvenient for the Epstein class?!?! 😡
The problem is predatory men. #EpsteinFiles
Where's the legislation for that?
If I can, I'll skip it.
Problem is I've had an Apple account for a long time. I think I started with iTunes. Apple probably already know more about me than I realise.
#Privacy #OnlineSafetyAct #iPhone #iOS26 #AgeVerification #FreeSpeech
www.waynedenner.com/apple-age-ve...
Active social media use in the UK has fallen sharply, according to media watchdog Ofcom, with people posting less often and becoming more cautious over how they approach online content. Ofcom research published on Thursday showed the number of people who think the benefits of being online outweigh the risks had also dropped — to 59 per cent, down from 72 per cent last year — with many feeling they spend too long on devices.
Active social media use drops as Britons become more cautious online www.ft.com/content/0e7f... (£)
New Ofcom research findings www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-an...
#OnlineSafetyAct #ageverification #socialmediaban #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
#OnlineSafetyAct
#StuffStarmer
#NazisInAllButName
#ReformUK
#LabourParty
#ConservativeParty
#SNP
#Labour
#greenparty
#LibDems
#PlaidCymru
youtu.be/3UkSia3EU6c?...
