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by daveoc64 329 days ago
The Online Safety Act enjoys high support with the UK public, because it targets a range of things that the average voter agrees should be restricted, to name just a few: online scams, pro-suicide content, cyberbullying, and allowing under-18s to access adult material.

There are issues with the legislation as it covers so many things, but many of the aims of it are popular.
1 comments
toyg 329 days ago
The funny thing is that none of those aims will be achieved with this act. The only way to make the net safe is by turning it into a heavily-sanitized cage, where only government-approved players are allowed; an outcome that the average voter would likely not support (but who knows - fascism is back in fashion, after all).

All legislation will have "issues" until it's made physically impossible for a website to be accessible unless the government approves it. Until then, it's just a way to promote VPNs across the general public, which will have a bunch of collateral negative effects (since it will become much harder for the security services to actually monitor actual bad guys).

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tim333 329 days ago
Brit here. I'm ambivalent about it. We'll have to see how it works in practice. I don't think the idea is that it's impossible to access harmful content, just that it's trickier so kids see less porn, self harm advice and so on.

So far the only thing I've noticed was Reddit asking how old I am. We've had a 'ban' on piracy sites for years which remains trivially circumvented.

We also ban online paedophile networks but I think all countries do that? That one you go to jail for.

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AlphaCerium 328 days ago
> just that it's trickier so kids see less porn, self harm advice and so on.

how about making it harder for them to stop a nicotine addiction, or get support after experiencing sexual assault?

https://x.com/Menkvi/status/1948688664919245153

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