Thousands of Brits have signed a petition demanding the end of stringent new online safety measures that critics say are strangling free speech.
From Pornhub to X, all platforms displaying adult content must now have measures in place to verify that users are over the age of 18.
Ofcom claims the new measures – part of the Online Safety Act – will make life safer online for young people.
However, hundreds of thousands have signed a petition calling for the act to be repealed, with critics claiming that the controls brought in by the Act are over-reaching, restricting Brits from expressing themselves.
Websites with large audiences such as social networks are required to protect young users from harmful content.
As a result, many have rolled out age-verification that requires users to surrender credit card or personal ID information to prove their age. Some even require a facial scan – but these have already been circumvented by some online.
The stringent measures, which require the surrender of personal data, have prompted Brits to turn to measures like VPN software, which can trick a website into thinking someone has logged in from outside of the UK, removing the age gate.
Alex Baynham, who started the Parliamentary petition that has been signed over 380,000 times, said the scope of the Act is ‘far broader and restrictive than is necessary in a free society’.
He said: ‘We think that Parliament should repeal the act and work towards producing proportionate legislation rather than risking clamping down on civil society talking about trains, football, video games or even hamsters because it can’t deal with individual bad faith actors.’
The Government, responding to the petition, says it has no plans to repeal the Act.
In a statement, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said that proportional measures were a ‘core principle’ of the Online Safety Act.
‘The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act, and is working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections,’ it added.
The new stand comes as campaigners warned that the Online Safety Act is having a ‘catastrophic’ impact on free speech after people were blocked from viewing videos of asylum seeker hotel protests.
On X, users complained they were unable to view clips of police detaining activists in the UK, with messages on-screen saying it was ‘due to local laws’ until the site could estimate a user’s age.
It is also reportedly restricting videos showing violence, according to some accounts.
X even barred users from watching a powerful speech about grooming gangs which Conservative MP Katie Lam made to Parliament earlier this year.
The crackdown is part of the Online Safety Act 2023 – a set of laws that protects children and adults online.
The idea of implementing age checks on pornography websites, and fining those sites that don’t comply, has existed for several years now.
Back in 2016, the UK government launched a public consultation over plans to implement age checks on pornography sites.
It was then included in the Digital Economy Act 2017, but the provision was delayed and eventually abandoned in October 2019.
The government said at the time age checks would be delivered through its ‘proposed online harms regulatory regime’ – in other words, the Online Safety Bill.
Ofcom has listed seven methods that porn providers could use to check if users are over-18.
These are photo-ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile-network operator (MNO) age checks, credit card checks, email-based age estimation, digital identity services and open banking.
Open banking works by accessing the information a bank has on record regarding a user’s age, while photo-ID matching involves uploading a verified photo-ID document, like a PDF of a passport of driving licence.
Facial age estimate works by analysing the features of a user’s face from a photo to work their age, while MNO age checks involve mobile-network operators applying age-restriction filters themselves.
Because you must be 18 to get a credit card in the UK, credit card checks are also listed as ‘highly effective’, as are email-based age estimations, which estimate your age based on other services where you’ve provided your email address.
One criticism of age-checking technology for porn is regarding concerns about handing sensitive identification information – namely age or date of birth – to third parties.
Andy Lulham, Chief Operating Officer at Verifymy, claims that this shouldn’t be a concern for users.
‘Plenty of groundwork has been done and content providers should be well prepared for the change and the technology,’ he explained.
‘Age assurance methods, like email-based estimation, are reliable, privacy-preserving, safe and easy to implement.
‘It’s a matter of when, not if, explicit or harmful content online will be shielded from children, making a safer internet for everyone.’
However, some facial ID scans have already been fooled by the use of a recently released videogame.
Tech experts have used the game Death Stranding 2 to circumvent facial ID scans by taking advantage of its photorealistic graphics and a ‘photo mode’ that allows players to manipulate the facial expression of the main character, played by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.
The facial scan software is fooled by the photorealistic depiction of the star, reports The Verge – and when users are asked to open their mouths to prove they are a real person, gamers are able to do the same thing on screen – passing the verification test.
Beyond the petition, it seems many Brits are opting to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around the new measure.
Online searches for VPNs, which can disguise a user’s location, spiked by more than 700 per cent on Friday morning.
This suggests thousands of Brits are already looking for ways around the restrictions.
VPNs help users appear as though they’re browsing from another country, allowing them to access sites without triggering the local ID checks.
