Ofcom is issuing industry guidance which sets out the tech adult websites must use to check ages.

Summary

Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, all websites hosting pornography, including social media platforms, must implement “robust” age verification methods, such as photo ID or credit card checks, for UK users by July.

Regulator Ofcom claims this is to prevent children from accessing explicit content, as research shows many are exposed as young as nine.

Critics, including privacy groups and porn sites, warn the measures could drive users to less-regulated parts of the internet, raising safety and privacy concerns.

  • TommySoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    8 hours ago

    Honestly I never understood this. I grew up with the internet so I’ve always had access to porn from a young age (If anything it was even easier back than). And pretty much everyone that’s 35 years or younger did as well and I’d say generally we all turned out fine. At least not any worse off than any other generation. And honestly the only negative side effect it had on me was having unrealistic expectations the first time I actually had sex.

    • galaskorz@discuss.onlineEnglish
      18·
      7 hours ago

      I had the same expectations about love, so maybe we should ban romantic movies for giving people a false expectation of what romantic relationships are actually like.

      • TommySoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        6 hours ago

        Dude same. I fucked up a lot of potential relationships when I was younger because I expected it to “be like the movies.”

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      Every once in a while I hear boomers waxing poetic about the wholesome days of old nudie mags.

      Well, I happen know the boomer’s own parents were plenty outraged by them, actually. And, have you ever read one of those? The copy is pretty damn disrespectful about the women appearing therein, as were the men running the show.

    • Yprum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      7 hours ago

      Yeah, and actually I would say with confidence we are actually better off. It’s true that unrealistic expectations is a big issue (well, might be more like, I think most realize that porn is not real after experiencing it so it’s not a big problem really for most), but at least we do have a good understanding of the possibilities and what is safe and what is not… At the very least we have a more openminded and informed point of view on sex and relationships. Which doesn’t mean either “let’s show porn to the kids” of course, but it’s such an overblown topic in society.

      Let parents be the responsible ones of what kids watch, not the webpages…

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      72·
      7 hours ago

      And honestly the only negative side effect it had on me was having unrealistic expectations the first time I actually had sex.

      And that is what we should be worrying about.

      I told my kid that she can watch all the porn she wants, I don’t care. Just don’t expect actual sex to be like that.