They’ve given up, in the name of doing something bigger that’s about more than pornâ¦
Yeah just read it and I wonder how much cash was wasted on that project?
My prediction from 2017
“I suspect this is one of those bravado things that will get so bogged down in litigation, challenges and practicality, it will disappear.”
I was actually surprised (nicely) that they scrapped it. Like mentioned here, imagine the amount of money wasted on this. And what about the companies that’s been setup to provide a age verification service, it must be a huge blow to them that they can’t survive.
Lets see what the next twist in the story will be.
Apparently Steve from AgeCheck has told people they’d already pivoted their business and are using what they’ve developed in another context. (Not sure what that means, but they’re moving on and not decimated.)
I could see another push for content labeling. I’ve been thinking a fair amount about it lately, wondering why it never took off. Yesterday I came across an article by one of the guys who was deeply involved in ICRA’s attempts to do a labeling system about why they failed. It’s an interesting (but long) readâ¦
https://philarcher.org/icra/ICRAfail.pdf
The main problem with labeling back then was the question “Why Bother?” But that’s solved by a government mandate. The biggest problem is parents. The guy who wrote the article (who’s a father) said⦠[INDENT]
“I believe that in a utopian world where all sites were labelled so that label-based filters worked and where one could go to a trusted source for a template that made configuring the software easy â no more than a handful of parents would take the option.”[/INDENT]
So if no one uses it, then what use is it? The other issue is that it doesn’t address parent’s biggest concerns. Quoting him againâ¦
. [INDENT]“The parental expectation is that the internet is as safe as the television. Concerns vary from country to country but it is issues such as contact (cyberbullying, grooming by paedophiles etc.) and inappropriate communication through social networks that worries parents far more than children coming across pornography (either by mistake or by deliberate action).”[/INDENT]
And then there’s the timeline. It would probably take a decade to really get figured out and then implemented everywhere it needs to be.
But yeah, I expect the UK government to continue to try to do something.
I’m sure you are right, it’s probably not over yet and there might still be some other try to regulate.
Maybe the labeling problem is also that there is no overall control over the internet instead different rules for different countries yet its for a network without borders. Its a shame, labeling could be a really good and simple solution if sites had to use it and all browsers followed it using some simple setting. Then again, teenagers always will find away around things.
I agree, and I actually think that’s something almost all of us would support, too.
Things have changed a great deal since we used methods like RTA, but those changes have made it even easier to implement more widely.
Most of the concern is about what young people are exposed via their phones, so rather than attempting blanket bans (which won’t work) it would be far more sensible to create a simple app controlled by a parent/guardian, screening all header content and blocking anything matching a specific meta tag. Even social media companies could then easily append this tag to any content identified as adult in nature.
Nothing is going to be 100% effective, but IMO parents just need to be given a simple tool they can add to the devices their kids are using to block as much adult content as possible. If we had such a system, where just adding a line of code could achieve this, we would all do it immediately.
What I could see working is something like this:
You start with a culturally-neutral, descriptive labeling system that doesn’t say what ages are appropriate, but rather what type of content is shown. [That said, webmasters could say they don’t want certain age groups on their site.]
Then cultural organizations set standards for what’s allowed and what’s not allowed based on their cultural standards. The parent chooses the requirements that match their personal beliefs, or spend a little time and develop their own. That said, getting parents to do anything is almost impossible.
Then the idea is that kids only get to see “safe sites”. Either ones where the labeling matches, or ones that are on an approved whitelist (by the chosen cultural organization). And someone would need to run a blacklist for sites that mislabel their content. Basically the idea is that if you want kids on your site you need to jump through some hoops â just like day care centers have to jump through hoops to warrant the contact they have with kids.
When it comes to social media (which has exploded since ICRA did their labeling system) any user generated content needs to be flagged on the page and treated differently by the filters. Many social media companies have run the images and videos they have through content analyzers. If they can expose that data via metadata on the page it would help the filters trust the user generated content.
But given current technology (privacy advances making old methods obsolete, apps pulling stuff off the web outside the scope of a browser, etc.) the filtering has to be be controlled at the OS level. Apps/applications would need to prove they’re compliant, and if not the OS would need to disable the app/application if the user is content-restricted.
Why all this would probably take a decade is because the labeling system would need to be developed, the standards developed, then browser developers would need lots of time to integrate the standard with their product. App developers will then need time to integrate the new embedded browsers. And lastly OS developers will need time to develop their side of things.
None of that will happen without a government mandate by a major government.
And the latest⦠UK age verification isn’t dead (yet)â¦
https://www.xbiz.com/news/247708/uk-age-verification-efforts-continue-despite-recent-setback
It looks like a major fiasco. At this point in time, anyway.
Now the Australians think they’ll give it a goâ¦
https://www.xbiz.com/news/247772/australia-considering-online-age-verification-for-gambling-porn
Yeah I saw that article… at least the impact if they did would be a lot smaller than the UK.
Not sure the UK’s attempt is entirely dead though there’s still things going on.
More on what Australia wants to do⦠It’s all centered around biometrics, which is totally spookyâ¦
https://www.zdnet.com/article/home-affairs-pushes-its-face-matching-service-for-porn-age-verification/
I’m sure I read a mentioned about that in the UK too… that they had not given up but would consider a better way.