David Cameron Wants To Shut Down Porn Sites Because Kids Are Clever Enough To Defeat Age Restrictions
from the the-war-against-porn dept
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been using "porn" moral panics as a wedge issue to ramp up censorship and control over the internet in the UK. He's been pushing aspects of it for years, including demands for the impossible: filters that block "bad content" but allow "good content." Yes, it does seem bizarre that someone in as powerful a position as David Cameron sees the world in such a black and white way, but remember, this is the same guy who bases his defense of more spying powers on what happens in fictional TV crime dramas.His latest plan? Well, he's insisting that he's going to shut down porn websites if they don't guarantee to keep out everyone under the age of 18. Yes, many sites have some age controls, but kids aren't stupid and can usually figure out a way around them. And that's always going to be the case. And it's been the case since pornography existed. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's quite likely that David Cameron himself first came across pornographic material long before his 18th birthday.
This whole plan seems like something designed to shut down websites... because kids are clever enough to get around basically any age restriction system. Anyway, it looks like Dan Bull may need to add a new verse to his musical open letter to UK Porn Minister, David Cameron:
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Filed Under: age restrictions, david cameron, filters, porn, uk
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#1 Trick of stage magicians:
While it's possible that this is really all about porn, I can't help but think, what would be the 'best' way to ensure that children can't access porn sites? Clearly just asking for birth-dates doesn't cut it, they can lie about that.
You can tie an account to something that you generally have to be(or have the cooperation of) an adult to have, like a credit card, but that only works for pay-sites, doing nothing for the free sites, of which there are massively more than paid.
Hmm, tricky...
Wait, I know, how about an online identity, tied to your real identity through some means(driver's license, ID card, something like that), that was required to browse at all(because you can't always know ahead of time when you'll run across porn, and some sites may not flag their content appropriately).
However, setting up such a system would be a real hassle, and to make sure it works on all sites, and was done properly, it would probably be best if the ever so helpful government stepped in and set up and ran the system, you know, just out of the goodness of their hearts.
Yes indeed, that would seem to fix the problem. And, purely by accident I'm sure, also allow real time tracking of what people do online, what sites they visit, what searches they make, what comments they leave, and anything else they do online.
But hey, a complete destruction of online privacy is a small price to pay to make it slightly more difficult, for a week or so, for underage individuals to get access to porn, right?
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Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
Actually, a credit card can be used a an age check, by validating it without making a charge on the card, and so can be used by free sites.
The real problem with online age checks is that they only prove that someone can pass the age check at the time it was made, which need not be the person using the computer a few seconds later.
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Re: Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
Credit cards as age-checks are a terrible idea, and just asking for trouble.
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Re: Re: Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
I remember around the turn of the century coming across one such pr0n site that stated you could use an expired card as proof of age. I thought that was a nice concept at that time as I would not have to expose an active card to potential fraud. Later it occurred to me: how could that work? If they ran the card info as a book/preauth transaction it would be rejected due to the expired date.
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Re: Re: Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
However you can be an additional cardholder on someone else's account at any age so it would be a fairly terrible age check.
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Re: Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
With only slightly more accuracy than just asking the user if they're 18 or not. And with a large helping of security risk.
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Re: #1 Trick of stage magicians:
Porn often distracts me, forcing me to act with one hand.
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LET THE PARENTS DO THEIR JOB!
I'd like to know when the hell these gubbermints decided that they're better parents than the real deal...
These bozos can't even balance the budget, and yet, we're supposed to TRUST them to know what's good for kids?
You want to do right by kids? Make sure they get a good education, after school programs, get rid of these zero tolerance policies and let teachers use common sense...
And most of all, STAY OUT OF THE NANNY BUSINESS!
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"If I can't enjoy myself, no-one can" basically.
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That much better value for our money.
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It's depressing that kids in the UK are smart enough to access porn
They should have stuck with porn. Definitely the less obscene option.
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Re: It's depressing that kids in the UK are smart enough to access porn
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Re: It's depressing that kids in the UK are smart enough to access porn
A majority of British voters did no such thing in either election where he slithered to power.
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Re: Re: It's depressing that kids in the UK are smart enough to access porn
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Should have just let the Nazis have them.
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Re: Should have just let the Nazis have them.
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as is the usual case, he has the idea that because HE thinks something is bad, everyone else has to as well! because he wants something stopped, everyone else has to as well! because he brings his kids up in a certain way, everyone else has to as well!
i dont understand why he thinks that how he brings up his kids is the right way, the only way and that everyone has to follow his example! and have parents not done a reasonable job over the centuries, without him sticking his oar in? he would do better to leave things alone! he's fucking up the uk as a whole, he need not interfere with the grass roots parts!!
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The only other possibilities I can see are:
1/ Shouting about a pointless, ineffectual "moral crusade" is a good way to distract from all the other truly awful and stupid policies of the government and is a good bait-and-switch for removing even more freedom from the "free" country that is the trying-to-catch-up-with-China UK
2/ He really is stupid enough to think that a law passed in Westminster is going to have more effect than generating a laugh for the 95+% of porn sites that aren't based in the UK.
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I don't think he's really concerned about morals. "Porn" and "protect the children" are just excuses. He really wants to establish control over people. Then, once the control is established, it can be used for all sorts of other things. And what is slavery but control over people?
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Actually, I liked the original Yiddish joke about the Hasidim who was clean-shaven under his beard better.
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Maybe it's time to find a more realistic solution?
Somewhere around the beginning of their teen years, children go though puberty. In the ensuing flood of hormones, sexuality becomes an overwhelming priority; trying to prevent this is like "spitting into the wind" - it isn't going to work. You might as well legislate against tides. Legislation didn't work for Prohibition, and drinking isn't biologically driven.
The young people will find a way to satisfy their totally natural (chemically induced) curiosity. "Pornography" would seem to be a preferable alternative to them finding out directly from each other. At the very least, it's less dangerous to them.
It's still a bad alternative, but the choice would seem to be between "bad" and "worse". And why? Because our modern society has decreed that that this normal, natural drive is "wrong" (until you're 18 years old - then it's ok). (View a consensual picture of a nude adult at the age of 17 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes? that's a crime! One minute later, it's not! How does THIS make sense?)
I believe that we'd be better served as a society trying to find a better way to allow young people to satisfy their (from a biological perspective) normal, natural curiosity safely, especially since they are going to find a way to do it anyway, no matter what the law says.
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Re: Maybe it's time to find a more realistic solution?
/s
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Re: Maybe it's time to find a more realistic solution?
Odd that, considering that the age of consent in the UK is 16 and you can also get married at that age.
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Re: Re: Maybe it's time to find a more realistic solution?
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VPN and internet censorship futility
unless they are morons they will still find a way to access any website they want to especially when told they can't.
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More Off Than On
What about jailing politicians both in the UK and US that don't guarantee their campaign rhetoric once elected to office?
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his political ilk in the UK/US are dangerous morons.
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Her friend chuckled. Mom said somehow she knew I'd have the answer (I'm the computer guy in the family after all) and I was not punished for it at all.
Leisure Suit Larry 3 was harder. I had to either ask my one year older brother who knew more about current events and history than I did or brute force guess and retry the multiple choice questions I didn't know to get into the naughty mode.
I figure if you're motivated enough to try to bypass the age verification, you're mature enough to view the content.
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I can't see any other reason for proposing more censorship laws...
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