Ban misogynistic online pornography, review to propose
The review, due to be published later, is expected to argue that porn videos considered too harmful for any certificate in the offline world should be banned online.Non-fatal strangulation is already an offence if someone does not consent but its depiction online is not illegal.The review suggests pornography websites have normalised such behaviour in the real world, with violent and degrading material rife on mainstream platforms amid a "total absence of government scrutiny".Ministers will be urged to give the regulator Ofcom new powers to prosecute online platforms that refuse to remove harmful content. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology has said it will respond to the recommendations once they have been laid before Parliament.Measures to increase regulation of pornography, including to prevent access by children, are already part of the Online Safety Act, which became law in October 2023. Services that publish their own pornographic content – including with generative AI tools – are already required to have age checks.From July, all websites on which pornographic material can be found must also introduce "robust" age-checking techniques such as demanding photo ID or running credit card checks for UK users.Ofcom estimates that approximately a third of adult internet users in the UK - 14 million people - watch online pornography, of which about three-quarters are men.
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Telegraph
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13 hours ago
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Could Labour ban VPNs after users dodge online protection laws?
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Not just this but also depending on how you define a VPN, if it is encapsulating traffic in an encrypted tunnel, then SSL in general would be covered. Article continues below "What about encrypted connections to Proxy servers, that would redirect traffic as well. The logistics of banning VPNs or even anything that hides (intentional or not) the source IP address is unworkable, it would make any kind of security on the internet illegal." Overseas restrictions on VPNs However, some other users pointed out that other countries have already placed bans and restriction on using VPNs at home. For example, citizens in China are only allowed to use certain VPNs that have been approved by the government. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates also has strict laws against using VPNs to access restricted content. 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