Latest news with #Codes
Time of India
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How this popular game is helping UK gamers bypass new age verification laws
(Image via Kojima) Gamers in the UK have reportedly discovered a method to bypass online age verification checks, which have now been mandated in the country on some websites, by using a popular video game. Recently, a user on the social media platform X (earlier Twitter) named Dany Sterkhov claimed to have bypassed Discord's age verification by using the photo mode in the video game Death Stranding . This discovery comes just days after the country started enforcing the Online Safety Act, a set of laws passed in 2023. These laws aim to prevent children from accessing pornography or other content deemed "harmful," including material related to self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders. Companies failing to comply with the new regulations face potential fines of up to 18 million pounds ($24.2 million) or 10% of their global revenue, whichever amount is greater. According to the U.K.'s media regulator, Ofcom , platforms such as Bluesky, Discord, Grindr, Reddit, and X have already committed to implementing age verification systems. In a recent statement, Ofcom executive chief Dame Melanie Dawes said: 'Prioritising clicks and engagement over children's online safety will no longer be tolerated in the UK. Our message to tech firms is clear – comply with age-checks and other protection measures set out in our Codes, or face the consequences of enforcement action from Ofcom.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kate Middleton Dared To Wear This Outfit And It Took Prince William's Breath Away Crowdy Fan Undo How gamers are bypassing age verification laws in UK Several companies depend on third-party services to conduct age verification. These systems usually allow users to either upload a government-issued photo ID or submit selfies for verification. Discord uses a service called k-ID. According to a report by The Verge, users were able to complete the process by using the photo mode in Death Stranding, pointing their phone at the screen to scan the face of the game's main character, Sam Bridges. The system prompted them to open and close his mouth—something the game allowed him to replicate. The report added that the same approach worked with Reddit's age verification system, which Persona manages. However, it was unsuccessful with Bluesky's verification process, which relies on a platform called Yoti. In the US, nearly half the states have passed laws requiring similar age checks for access to adult content. Additionally, nine states have implemented laws mandating parental consent or age verification for users on social media platforms. Attempts to bypass these systems weren't limited to gamers using Death Stranding. ProtonVPN shared on X that it experienced a more than 1,400% increase in sign-ups in the UK following the introduction of age verification rules. VPNs allow users to browse as though they are in a different region, making it easier to get around local age restrictions. iQOO Z10R 5G goes on Sale: BEST Budget Phone for Content Creators? AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
CNET
25-07-2025
- CNET
Welcome to the Era of Online Age Verification. Are You Ready to Prove Yourself?
On Thursday morning I woke up to find I no longer had access to my messages on social network Bluesky. "You must complete age assurance in order to access this screen," a pop-up notification told me. It went on to say the local laws where I live mean that I need to verify I'm an adult to view mature content or send direct messages. I'm based in the UK, and the law Bluesky was referring to is the Online Safety Act, which comes into force today. This piece of legislation requires web companies to ensure that people under the age of 18 don't have access to harmful content, including porn and material relating to self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. If sites choose to allow this content, they must verify the ages of people using their platforms to confirm that they're adults. Failure to do so could result in fines of £18 million or 10% of annual revenue, whichever is greater. "Prioritising clicks and engagement over children's online safety will no longer be tolerated in the UK," Melanie Dawes, chief executive of regulator Ofcom, said in a statement. "Our message to tech firms is clear -- comply with age-checks and other protection measures set out in our Codes, or face the consequences." The Online Safety Act might be a UK-specific law, but it affects companies based in the US and around the world, including Bluesky, Reddit, Discord, X, Porn Hub and Grindr -- all of which have committed to "age-gating" features to protect young people from stumbling across harmful content. It's also emblematic of a bigger shift in internet culture, which is seeing age verification become a mainstream concern across the world. Increasingly, adults who want to keep accessing internet services, from mainstream social networks to porn sites, will have to prove their age. In other words, expect my Bluesky experience to be coming to the internet near you soon. Earlier this month, the European Commission published an age verification app prototype that will help keep young people safe online in accordance with the EU's Digital Services Act. We're also starting to see the ripple effect in the US of the legislation the UK and EU have enacted, says Vaishnavi J, founder of online child safety consultancy Vys. Just last month, the US Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring porn sites to verify the age of all visitors. "State laws, advocacy campaigns, and growing parental demand in the US are all converging around the need for age assurance," said J, who previously worked in the policy teams at Meta and Twitter. "Combine that with rapid advances in the tech ecosystem, and it's no longer a question of if the US adopts age verification, but how and when." Safety vs. privacy The Wild West nature of the internet and the ability to be largely anonymous often blurs the lines between spaces occupied by children and adults in a way that doesn't happen in the offline world. This means children are often exposed to content many would consider inappropriate or harmful. According to Ofcom's own research, around 1 in 10 children in the UK between the ages of 8 and 14 have watched online pornography -- an activity the new age verification rules are designed to prevent. Making the internet safer for children might be necessary and admirable, but age verification policies have also come under fire from digital rights and privacy groups. I've been covering the UK's attempts to bring in age verification since 2016. The government at the time decided it was too difficult and ultimately decided not to push ahead with plans aimed at age-gating porn sites in 2019. The main objection to the legislation was the same then as it is now. Asking people to share their government-issued identification with private companies poses a threat to their privacy. "The British public is being forced to hand over sensitive personal data to unregulated age assurance providers if they want to have full access to platforms such as Reddit and Bluesky or to use dating apps such as Grindr," said James Baker, head of programming at Open Rights Group, in a statement ahead of the Online Safety Act coming into force. "The threats and harms of phishing and hacking are very real, and will cause people online harms," he added. Open Rights Group also criticized the fact that people aren't being given the right to choose how they verify their age. A number of verification methods exist, including age estimation via video selfie (a method gaming platform Roblox announced it was introducing last week), banking or credit card checks, third-party digital ID services, mobile carrier checks or photo ID matching. It's up to the individual service which method they want to adopt, which could leave people vulnerable to problematic privacy policies. As with many internet rules, there's always some level of tradeoff involved when making the online world safe. In many ways, the idea of age verification is "common sense," Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, tech policy adviser at NYU's Stern Business School, wrote in a blog post this week. At the same time, she added, depending on regulations and methods chosen, age verification can introduce serious privacy, security and access risks. "In some cases, the systems employed are so flawed that they fail to protect minors while also excluding adults who should have lawful access," said Rosenblat. "Policymakers must understand and carefully weigh these tradeoffs before mandating age verification at scale." Many critics of age verification have also argued that verification will be ineffective due to the wide availability of VPNs and teens' ability to circumvent any rules attempting to limit their internet use. Whether age verification is truly effective at keeping kids safe online is a question that can only be answered as the Online Safety Act and similar legislation comes into force. In the meantime, I -- and possibly you -- will need to be prepared to prove our identities and our ages if we're to continue using the internet in the way we've become accustomed to using it.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Any move to curtail trade union rights will be opposed: BMS
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will address workers affiliated to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) during the concluding ceremony of the 70th anniversary of the Sangh Parivar-led trade union. Talking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday (July 21, 2025) about the event, BMS president Hiranmay Pandya said his organisation was open to work with other trade unions too on the issue of trade union rights in the country. He said that the BMS stood for workers' rights since its formation in 1955. When asked about the opposition to four Labour Codes, Mr. Pandya said the BMS welcomed the Code on Wages and the Code on Social Security. He said the two Codes paved the way for minimum wages and social security for every worker. 'Why should someone oppose it?' he asked. He, however, said the BMS had suggested amendments to the Code of Industrial Relations and the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions. When asked about the apprehensions of other 10 central trade unions that the Code on Industrial Relations could curtail trade union rights, Mr. Pandya said the BMS would oppose any such move and added that the union was at the forefront of protests against the present BJP-led regime too. The four Codes, passed in Parliament in 2019 and 2020 in the second term of the Narendra Modi government, have been opposed by various Central Trade Unions. He said the BMS had earlier worked with other unions and was still ready to cooperate with them. 'It is for them to decide if they want to work for the workers' interests rather than function based on political motives,' he said. On privatisation, he said the BMS was of the view that industries in strategic sectors should not be privatised.
Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Automotive
- Indian Express
Workers in automotive industry face safety risk, as injuries rise 35 per cent YoY: Safe in India Foundation Report
Workers in the automotive industry continue to face safety risk, with a 35 per cent year-on-year increase in injured workers to 1,256 in 2024 as against 926 in 2023, a report released by Safe in India (SII) Foundation on Friday showed. Out of these, 875 workers reported crush injury (loss of their fingers) in 2024, a 15 per cent year-on-year rise from 759 crush injuries seen by workers assisted by the SII in 2023. More than 95 per cent of the injured workers assisted by it worked in 6 out of the top 10 automotive brands, it said. Supervisors often ignored workers' warning of malfunctioning machines, with 41 per cent injured workers aware of malfunctioning of the machines; of which 91 per cent reported to have informed the supervisor and were ignored, the report said. The Foundation's report, titled Crushed 2025, is the 7th annual report on worker safety in the Indian automotive manufacturing sector. Crush injuries tracked by the SII showed an increase and in two-thirds of these crush injuries on machines like power press, workers continue to lose two fingers on an average, the report said. More than two-thirds of power press defects that cause these grave injuries stem from loose or broken pins, keys, or springs, while one-quarter are due to damaged paddles, frequently resulting in double stroke injuries, the report said. Factories, predominantly, do not seem to have the practice of inspecting the machinery, daily before operations begin as required, it said. 'In 70 per cent of the cases, inspection of machinery is done only when not working or an impending external audit,' the report said. The higher the vulnerability of the worker in terms of lower levels of education, the worse is the rate of injuries suffered by the worker, it said. For instance, in Haryana, 59 per cent of the injured workers were non-permanent in 2024, while 86 per cent were inter-state migrants, with 77 per cent of the workers educated lower than class tenth. In Maharashtra, 77 per cent of the injured workers are non-permanent, while 80 per cent of the injured workers were inter-state migrants, with 74 per cent having education less than class tenth. While the report noted the changes proposed in the new Labour Codes, it said some of the rules, especially regarding working hours, have been changed in most states in line with the Codes, resulting in longer working hours without commensurate payments for overtime that often breaches weekly work hour limit. For instance, the legal working hours have been increased from 8 hours to 12 hours per day in many states but the weekly limit of 48 hours has not been increased. However, 'the reality is that 76 per cent injured workers stated that they work over 60 hours a week', the report said. Over 8,500 injured workers have come to SII, 78 per cent from auto-component factories, mostly on illegally operated power presses, Sandeep Sachdeva Co-Founder & CEO, Safe in India Foundation said. 'Women remain disproportionately at risk. Many employers falsify records and deny even basic ESIC (Employees' State Insurance Corporation) entitlements,' he said. As recommendations for improving workers' safety, Sachdeva said company boards should be made accountable for safety. 'Publish clear MIS on supply chain accidents; stop business with repeat offenders. Professionalise MSME suppliers, starting with Tiers 1 and 2, enforce ESIC and OSH (Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code) compliance, align with global best practices,' he said. A joint task force can be created with the government and industry-wide skills and safety training programmes, especially on high-risk machines, should be launched, backed by honest audits. Aanchal Magazine is Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and reports on the macro economy and fiscal policy, with a special focus on economic science, labour trends, taxation and revenue metrics. With over 13 years of newsroom experience, she has also reported in detail on macroeconomic data such as trends and policy actions related to inflation, GDP growth and fiscal arithmetic. Interested in the history of her homeland, Kashmir, she likes to read about its culture and tradition in her spare time, along with trying to map the journeys of displacement from there. ... Read More
Fashion United
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion United
Grand Palais to host exhibition dedicated to the work of Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh: The Codes, the first major European exhibition dedicated to the work of Virgil Abloh (1980 - 2021), will be presented at the Grand Palais from September 30 (his birthday) to October 10, 2025. The exhibition will explore nearly two decades of Abloh's multidisciplinary output through 20,000 archive items. It brings together hundreds of objects, prototypes, sketches and images from Abloh's career, as well as pieces from his personal collections and library. The Codes also highlights Abloh's collaborations with several artists, designers and athletes. 'This exhibition is just the beginning of our work to share Virgil's legacy and principles with the creative community and the world,' Shannon Abloh, the late designer's wife and also chief executive officer of Virgil Abloh Securities, founder and chairwoman of the board of the Virgil Abloh Foundation, and president of Virgil Abloh Archive, said in a statement. Abloh continued: 'Sharing his personal collection, unfinished projects and magnum opuses with the public is a monumental way to celebrate Virgil's legacy and his commitment to making information accessible and collaborative. Through the Archive, Virgil will remain a source of inspiration and a beacon of creative knowledge.' Curated by Chloé Sultan and Mahfuz Sultan, the exhibition is an expanded edition of the 2022 exhibition Virgil Abloh: The Codes. It traces how his signature design principles – his 'codes' – are found in his work across garments, footwear, architecture, music, advertising and more, unifying a practice that spans multiple disciplines. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
