{"id":307409,"date":"2025-07-31T20:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307409\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:04:15","slug":"this-is-how-the-uks-new-online-safety-act-is-making-the-internet-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307409\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is How The UK\u2019s New Online Safety Act Is Making The Internet Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was going to say it\u2019s been a weird week to be a person that uses the internet, but really, it\u2019s been a weird decade or so at this point. We\u2019ve watched social media grow less fun and connective and more algorithmic so it can sell us things and stoke global division. It\u2019s harder to find reliable sources of information, since search engines are clogged up with SEO content and AI<\/a>-generated misinformation. We all live online as much as we do offline \u2013 we work here, socialise here, shop here. Our music is here. Our movies are here. Our games are here. Most of us couldn\u2019t go offline if we tried.<\/p>\n

And yet, being online gets worse seemingly by the day. In the last week alone, payment processors flexed their influence by forcing external platforms like Steam and Itch.io to censor content<\/a> in accordance with their policies, the UK\u2019s new Online Safety Act came into effect<\/a>, and Google started using AI age estimation tech to restrict age-gated content. Taken as a whole, one might call this a clear example of how corporate and governmental overreach has resulted in censorship and tech companies taking the opportunity to collect user data while neglecting privacy. But how, specifically, is this going to impact you?<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tIs It Just Me Or Is Anyone Else Nostalgic For NFTs?
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

I hated NFTs, but the current big tech fad is so much worse.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Happening?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Well, for one, if you live in the UK and are under 18 \u2013 or even if you\u2019re not \u2013 you\u2019re going to have to jump annoying hurdles just to use the services you were using before, if you aren\u2019t already encountering them. <\/p>\n

If you have an Xbox<\/a>, for example, you\u2019ll have to verify that you\u2019re over the age of 18 starting from next year<\/a> with either a selfie, a scan of legal identification, a credit card statement, or your phone number. Not doing so will lock you out of some social features, and you won\u2019t be able to use Discord integration or broadcast gameplay on Twitch either. According to Xbox<\/a>, age verification processes are likely to be rolled out to other regions in the future. PlayStation<\/a> and Nintendo<\/a> will likely have to implement similar practices, too.<\/p>\n

You can stream on Twitch from age 13 as long as you have parental supervision. Not quite sure how that math works out.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg. Statistically, if you listen to music through a streaming app, you do it on Spotify. From now on, if you try to access \u201cage restricted content, like music videos tagged 18+\u201d<\/a>, you may be forced to verify your age by scanning your face or uploading identification, lest your account be deactivated and deleted. What Spotify has on its platform that would warrant this is a mystery to me. <\/p>\n

I guess you could just use YouTube, except YouTube is now also introducing age verification<\/a>, though this is for the United States, which doesn\u2019t have a federal law akin to the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act in place. It\u2019s going to use age estimation technology that analyses your usage to figure out if you\u2019re over or under 18, and adjust your experience accordingly. <\/p>\n

If it decides you\u2019re underage, it will disable personalised advertising, turn on \u201cdigital wellbeing tools\u201d (whatever that means), bar you from watching \u201cage-restricted content that may be inappropriate for younger users\u201d, and add \u201csafeguards to recommendations, including limited repetitive views of some kinds of content\u201d. Want to have the same experience as before? Yeah, you have to upload some government ID or a credit card. <\/p>\n

This will extend to all Google products, which means that among other things<\/a>, users assumed to be minors will not be able to access apps \u201crestricted to adults on Google Play\u201d.<\/p>\n

Why Should I Care?<\/p>\n

\"Player<\/p>\n

Well, first of all, don\u2019t give your information out willy-nilly<\/a>, especially not to third-party verification services that you don\u2019t trust. There is no standardisation for verification services \u2013 Bluesky, Reddit, and Discord, which have all had to implement age verification, all partner with different companies. <\/p>\n

All these third-party companies are handling sensitive data, and while some of them promise your information won\u2019t be stored, there are few protections against privacy and security breaches in the UK, which is going to be the hardest hit by verification laws. You are, essentially, getting a pinky promise from a company that they won\u2019t let your data be stolen (or bought). Considering how common data breaches are nowadays, this is a real risk. 404 Media reported<\/a> that last year, an identity verification company partnered with TikTok, Uber, and Twitter left sensitive data exposed for over a year.<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tTime Is Ticking On Console Exclusivity: PlayStation’s New Multi-Platform Strategy Indicates The Console War May Be Over
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Xbox backing off from console exclusivity means room for PlayStation to step in.<\/p>\n

Another reason to care is that the law covers everything, even small businesses that aren\u2019t able to feasibly implement age verification checks. A petition arguing that the act was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d was launched and quickly dismissed<\/a>. Should you have to upload government identification to scroll through a subreddit about ciders? Should independent video game publications have to implement age verification because they might discuss games with sensitive themes? The internet is already so corporatised \u2013 smaller communities disappearing because of this will be a cultural loss.<\/p>\n

Video game studios are subject to this, too. Any game with chat functions available in the UK will have to follow the law, which means that small game studios that may struggle to implement comprehensive moderation tools will have to do so regardless, or risk being hit with fines. Some hugely popular games developed by small studios use proximity voice chat as a core part of their gameplay \u2013 Peak<\/a>, for example. How are indie developers meant to comply without the resources of larger corporations?<\/p>\n

Protecting children is important. The internet is a wild and often evil place. Every time I see a child using an iPhone, a part of my soul shrivels and rots thinking about the things they could potentially be exposed to \u2013 Instagram filters that distort their perceptions of themselves, the manosphere, predators. But this law offloads parental responsibility onto companies that might not be able to comply, while opening up the gates for corporations to wildly overreach and potentially compromise user data. There has to be a better solution, because this is a really bad one for everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was going to say it\u2019s been a weird week to be a person that uses the internet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[3082,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-307409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114949643669297121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}