[gjsman-1000]

Not necessarily - how is a kid paying for a VPS server?

A personal debit card (which requires ID verification anyway, and likely has their parents able to see activity)? A personal credit card (which definitely requires ID + 18+)? Stealing their parents' card (works for like 5 days)? Does the VPS company block VPN ports without verification, similar to how most companies handle email? Do you think VPS services have any interest, at all, in an underage clientele?

The proposed law is plenty effective - saying otherwise is like saying kids can bypass age verification at the knife shop or alcohol store by using eBay. No sane mind says that age verification is therefore useless.

[whatshisface]

If having a credit card and the ability to make purchases was good enough as an ID system, they could have simply made it the law instead of requiring tech companies to collect those sweet, sweet personal ID document photos.

[gjsman-1000]

The UK law doesn't say you have to use ID photos, that's porn companies knowing that charging even £1 a visit would be devastating to the business. Credit card verification is a completely legal method in the UK.

[whatshisface]

They can check for credit cards without requiring any payment. Are you sure that's sufficient given these vaguely worded laws? If so many HN readers could solve the whole problem by making websites which issued digital signatures of random numbers to anyone who can support a £0.01 debit which is then immediately reversed.

[gjsman-1000]

The problem is porn companies know full well nobody, nobody, wants that on their credit card statement. Kinda weird that something supposedly as natural as rain needs such levels of privacy; the hypocrisy is notable (if it's so natural and so many people do it, own it).

[whatshisface]

They can have whatshisface's digital certificates, Inc. on their statements.

[gruez]

authorizations don't show up on statements, but still allow you to verify the card is valid

[sublinear]

Single people don't care, and they are becoming the majority of adults and probably more likely consume porn too.

[technion]

I have always wondered how this would go if you applied for a loan through your bank. Or a rental that wanted 'last three months financial transactions' in the application.

[munksbeer]

When they block adult content behind age gates, children still view adult content, via VPN or via websites that have no interest in complying with the UK but may well have worse motivations to access children's data.

Age gating legitimate VPN or VPS will result in the same thing. Children will end up using less safe services to view what they want to view.

When my children are old enough, if we're still in the UK, I will be providing them with enough education to avoid ill intentioned sites, and will also provide them with a private VPN.

We learn nothing from history.

[HK-NC]

When my daughter was young, maybe 8, she had access to a laptop. She wasnt glued to it, but it was her little computer for fooling around on. One day my PC died and I had important things to do, so I used her laptop. As I typed into the address bar some prior history popped up and I had a moment where I wondered if I should respect her privacy or make sure shes being safe. By the time Id done my emails I decided to take a peek. I regretted it as soon as I saw her search for "funny memes" or something followed minutes later by "funny memes for kids". To this day she complains that nobody in her age group knows how to use a search engine without writing a full sentence in the form of a question, instead of using key words.

The govt is a shit parent.

[CrossVR]

> Not necessarily - how is a kid paying for a VPS server?

The same way the kid is somehow paying for a VPN apparently.

[deaux]

The kid could easily be using a "free" VPN that harvests all your data in return for its services. No payment required. Not the case with VPS. Even free tiers require credit cards.

[subscribed]

They can buy the server without KY paying with crypto or PayPal (11+ can have debit cards in the UK).

Or ask their parents.