Latest news with #adultcontent
The Sun
18 hours ago
- The Sun
Brits to be blocked from adult content TONIGHT with booze-style ID or face-scan checks replacing ‘ridiculous' tickbox
MILLIONS of Brits will be blocked from adult content online at midnight tonight unless they pass booze-style age checks. The new rules mean you'll need to prove you're over 18 – including by showing ID or scanning your face with a phone. 3 It affects any websites showing porn, or content linked to self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders. This includes social media apps too. The new Ofcom rules enforce the Online Safety Act, and kick in on Friday, July 25. 'It's really the rubber hitting the road,' Oliver Griffiths, group director for online safety at Ofcom, told The Sun. 'The situation at the moment is often ridiculous because people just have to self-declare what their birthday is. That's no check at all.' Major websites like PornHub, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit have already vowed to follow the rules. Reddit will remain open, but will require an age check if you attempt to view adult content on the site. Shockingly, around 8% of children aged eight to 14 have accessed online porn in a given month, Ofcom says. Boys are more likely to visit than girls (at 19% vs 11%). Now Ofcom can crack down on this behaviour, by blocking youngsters from accidentally stumbling on all kinds of adult content – not just porn. 'One is pornography. The other one is making sure that we've got highly effective age assurance in place for things that aren't illegal but are highly harmful for children,' Griffiths said, speaking to The Sun. 'So that could be suicide content, self-harm, or eating disorders. Don't risk ignoring four free iPhone tricks built to save your life 'And we will be starting an enforcement programme next week if there are websites dedicated to that who haven't got proper age gates in place for midnight tonight.' CHECK YOURSELF There are three main ways that Brits will be asked to prove their age. The first one is called an 'age estimation'. This can work by scanning your face with an approved third-party service like Yoti or Persona. 3 Or it could be estimating your age with an email check that examines if it's been linked to a household utility bill. The second option is linking back to info that's held on you. For instance, it could be checking with your bank or mobile phone company – both of which would already know if you're an adult or not. A simple computer handshake works out if you're a child or not, and then you can be cleared for access if you get the go-ahead. The third method is sharing an official document – a bit like showing your ID at the till in a supermarket. You might be asked to show your passport or driver's license online. SAFE SPACE? This might all sound like a privacy nightmare, especially if you're watching X-rated content online. But the adult websites don't actually get the personal info about you. 3 And the age-checking services aren't learning what kind of content you're trying to view either. The age-check is compliant with data protection, and simply gives the adult website a 'yes' or 'no' for your account. You'll remain anonymous and won't have your online habits linked to your identity when you do oe of these checks. Griffiths noted: 'The key bit of information that's needed is purely: is this user a child or not?' Companies are able to choose the method they want – but they can't opt out. If they breach the new rules, they face massive fines. 'These can lead, in the end, to fines of up to 10% of qualifying global revenue for these companies,' Griffiths said. 'So there's real teeth that sit behind this." THE SHOCKING STATS Latest figures show the scale of adult content consumption online... Ofcom stats: Around 8% children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month. 15% of 13–14-year-olds accessed online porn in a month. Boys aged 13-14 are the most likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (19% vs 11%). Our research tells us that around three in ten (29%) or 13.8m UK adults use porn online. Pornhub is the most used site in the UK – Ofcom research says 18% (8.4m) visited it in one month. Children's Commissioner stats: Of the 64% who said that they had ever seen online pornography: The average age at which children first see pornography is 13. By age nine, 10% had seen pornography, 27% had seen it by age 11 and half of children who had seen pornography had seen it by age 13. We also find that young people are frequently exposed to violent pornography, depicting coercive, degrading or pain-inducing sex acts; 79% had encountered violent pornography before the age of 18. Pornography is not confined to dedicated adult sites. We found that Twitter was the online platform where young people were most likely to have seen pornography. The maximum fine is £18 million – but a company can be charged an even higher sum of 10% of global revenue. This is aimed at targeting giant web companies who may be in breach of the rules. DODGY DEALINGS Of course, some youngsters will go out of their way to dodge the checks. It's possible to skirt the ban using a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. These easily-downloaded apps scramble your internet data to boost your privacy from online spies. But they also let you trick websites and apps into thinking you're logging on from another country. Ofcom insiders admit there's no way to stop this – but that doesn't make the new rules redundant. 'Our research shows that these are not people that are out to find porn – it's being served up to them in their feeds,' Griffiths explained. 'And we think that these measures are going to have a really big impact in terms of dealing with that particular problem. Using parental controls and having conversations, feels a really important part of the solution. Oliver GriffithsOfcom 'There will be teenagers – dedicated teenagers – who want to find their way to porn, in the same way as people find ways to buy alcohol under 18. They will use VPNs. 'And actually, I think there's a really important reflection here. It's not just us, in terms of making life safer online. 'Parents having a view in terms of whether their kids have got a VPN, and using parental controls and having conversations, feels a really important part of the solution.' Another fear around the new rules is that by blocking unverified Brits from mainstream sites, they'll seek out adult content in more extreme corners of the web. But Ofcom says the porn industry is aware of this, and is working to get everyone on board. 'This was certainly a concern that when we were working with the adult sector,' Griffiths told us. 'The big sites were saying, well if we age-assure here, then won't that just divert traffic to darker corners. 'And I think it was that sort of sense that everybody needed to move together. 'That's allowed us to get to the position where we've got 6,000 websites hosting porn that are going to have age-assurance in place as of midnight.' CYBER EXPERT'S VIEW Here's what Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, said… 'Like many new regulations, the Online Safety Act's approach to age verification sounds ideal to stamp out content that isn't intended for younger people. However, there are still details of the act that are missing that could even pose significant privacy and security risks by collecting data such as ID uploads and financial information. 'Whilst this particular thorn in the act's side has taken longer than expected, it has come across technological barriers and not without good reason. While intended to protect children, these measures could potentially collect large amounts of sensitive personal data vulnerable to breaches or surveillance. 'The real push to govern social media platforms will be in the assigned punishment that enforces it but these platforms are often financially incentivised to push harmful content and then ask for forgiveness rather than permission 'The Online Safety Act's approach to age verification is likely to have a few teething problems but the initial step into online age verification will be a huge step towards online safety for children. 'Although some of the ways to verify ages may sound like they pose potential privacy and security risks by collecting data such as ID uploads or financial information, there are methods in place to reduce further harm. Online privacy has been completely avoided since the birth of social media and other sites with harmful content but this is a move towards the classic adage of better late than never.' Picture Credit: Jake Moore / ESET
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands of websites blocked for UK users from July 25 under new law
Thousands of websites will be blocked for Uk users from Friday, January 25 thanks to a new law. The Online Safety Act, coming into force on July 25, 2025, will fundamentally change how some websites operate in the UK. The new law requires all sites hosting or distributing adult content to implement robust age verification systems or face serious consequences, including being blocked from UK users or fined up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue. Sites that fail to verify a user's age using proper technology – such as ID checks or third-party verification services – will be considered non-compliant. 'The days of ticking a box to say you're over 18 are over,' said Adam Jones, Internet Law Specialist at HD Claims 'Any adult site operating in the UK must now take meaningful steps to prevent underage access, or risk being banned entirely.' READ MORE: Flight attendant explains seat she always books when flying as a plane passenger READ MORE: NASA shares July 28 update as asteroid heading towards Earth's direction 'fast' This applies not just to traditional porn sites, but also to platforms that host user-generated explicit content such as Reddit, X, and OnlyFans. Under the Act, Ofcom now has the power to: Issue content takedown orders and demand access restrictions Fine platforms that fail to prevent underage access Hold UK-based users and distributors accountable for uploads that breach the law Even sites hosted overseas can be blocked if they are accessible in the UK and fail to comply. Adam said: 'While sites must verify age, they are not permitted to retain sensitive personal data without clear user consent. The law includes privacy protections, and any platform storing unnecessary data risks breaching GDPR.' Users can expect to see an increase in secure, privacy-first age verification tools such as digital wallets, credit checks, or government ID-based systems. Companies that don't meet Ofcom's standards could face significant penalties (up to £18 million or 10% of global turnover), whichever is higher. In the most serious cases, senior managers or executives could be held personally responsible. Senior Commercial Technology and Data Protection Solicitor at law firm Harper James, David Sant, said: 'This is just the latest phase of the online safety rollout. Businesses should already be well-advanced in their compliance work if they operate a search engine or any online service which allows users to interact with each other or encounter their content ('user-to-user' services). Those businesses should already have completed an illegal content risk assessment by March 2025 and implemented appropriate safety measures. And they should also have completed a children's access assessment by April 2025 to determine whether children might use their platforms, triggering comprehensive children's risk‑assessment requirements. 'Any services which missed the deadlines for earlier assessments could already be at risk of enforcement action from Ofcom, and may now be automatically deemed as likely to be accessed by children, triggering the children's risk‑assessment requirements. 'Even if a business missed the deadline, they should note that the 'child access assessments' need to be carried out annually to determine whether a user-to-user service or search service is likely to be accessed by a significant number of children. 'To determine whether a service is likely to be accessed by children, the business must consider whether it's technically possible for children to use the service – something that can only be confidently ruled out if the service uses highly effective age‑assurance tools such as facial age estimation, digital ID verification or photo‑ID matching at first use; simply stating a minimum age in your terms of service is not enough. If it's technically possible for children to access the service, the business must consider other factors, like whether their commercial strategy relies on children accessing the service and whether the content or design of the service is likely to appeal to children. If any of those apply, then it is likely to be accessed by children, which means that the business must carry out a further risk assessment and implement appropriate measures. David added: 'While the headline fines under the Online Safety Act (up to £18m or 10% of worldwide revenue) may sound daunting, enforcement will focus on cases where non-compliance poses real risk, particularly to children. Business should also consider the reputational consequences of Ofcom publishing details of investigations. 'Ofcom has already launched enforcement programmes to monitor whether businesses are complying with their illegal content risk assessment duties and their children's risk assessment duties."
The Verge
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Itch.io follows Steam in removing adult games
The indie-focused open gaming marketplace has abruptly deindexed adult content from its browse and search pages, warning that some games will be permanently removed from the platform. In a blog post on Thursday, creator Leaf Corcoran said that the update was due to concerns that the website's payment processors had 'about the nature of certain content' hosted on the platform, following similar scrutiny against Steam. 'Our ability to process payments is critical for every creator on our platform,' said Corcoran. 'To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.' While hosts a variety of gaming content, adult and pornographic titles are often among the top-sellers on the platform. Content creators who host their work on were given no warning ahead of the decision. 'We know this is not ideal, and we apologize for the abruptness of this change,' said Corcoran. It's unclear if customers are currently able to access games and visual novels that they had paid for prior to the update. We've reached out to for clarification. Credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard have rules that restrict some kinds of illegal and NSFW content. Steam similarly purged some adult titles last week after quietly changing its policy guidelines to ban any content that might violate rules set by the platform's payment providers and card networks. Backlash against both gaming platforms online has likened the situation to Tumblr banning pornographic content in 2018, a decision that Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Tumblr's parent company, Automattic, attributed to pressure from credit card companies, and is widely believed to have driven many users away from the platform. has yet to provide full guidance for creators that outlines the content that will be permitted on the platform following this change, but notes that creators will be required to confirm that their NSFW content abides by any rules set by their account's payment processors. That is, of course, providing that this doesn't cause a Tumblr-esque mass exodus of users who may now be looking for an alternative service to host, sell, and buy NSFW games. 'We are currently conducting a comprehensive audit of content to ensure we can meet the requirements of our payment processors,' said Corcoran. 'Pages will remain deindexed as we complete our review. Once this review is complete, we will introduce new compliance measures.' Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jess Weatherbed Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Culture Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Internet Culture Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Steam's got a new rule that puts the kibosh on 'certain kinds of adult only content' that make Visa and Mastercard sad
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Devs are biting their nails over a new Steam rule that prohibits—in painfully vague terms—certain kinds of content on its platform. The new rule (seemingly introduced incredibly recently, and definitely introduced since the Wayback Machine's last Steam rules snapshot from April 14 this year) forbids "Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers." In other words: keep Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal happy or sling your hook. How do you do that? Valve doesn't say, only noting that particular care should be taken with "certain kinds of adult only content." No elaboration is offered as to what kinds of adult-only content that means, leaving NSFW devs groping in the dark to appease payments processors. I've reached out to Valve to ask for clarification on this rule, and I'll update this piece if I hear back. But while we wait, maybe we can connect some dots. As spotted by SteamDB on Bluesky, the new rule coincided with the sudden removal of a significant number of incest-themed adult games from Steam's storefront. Anyone who had any number of the Interactive Sex or Sex Adventures games on their wishlist should have bought them sooner: they've been suddenly and unceremoniously yoinked. I've reached out to the dev behind some of those games, too, to ask if they've had any communication from Valve, and I'll update if I hear back. Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 It would seem, then, that incest might be one of the themes that falls under Valve's (or, more accurately, Valve's payments processors') new rubric of verboten games, but there's a wrinkle here too. There are still some incest-themed games available for purchase on the platform, including one from the same Interactive Sex series that was hit so hard in the removals noted by SteamDB. Could it be they just slipped some sort of automated removal net? Or was the disappearance of so many games with the same, um, theme just a coincidence? Without clarification from Valve that goes beyond the couple of sentences that have been chucked into its Steamworks onboarding docs, it's tough to say. What's less hard to parse is the very real fear this has struck into the hearts of Steam users and devs both. Fears abound that Steam is in for the kind of turmoil that struck OnlyFans all the way back in 2021, when the site—almost exclusively associated in people's minds with the sex workers who use it to make a living—said that pressure from banks was forcing it to ban pornography on the platform. The policy was eventually walked back after an outcry, but it was just one more thing that makes trying to make a living from sex work uniquely precarious in the age of online payments and platform-dependency. It's not just OnlyFans that has come under the eye of Sauron for this kind of stuff, either. Tumblr, infamously, banned porn on the platform, with CEO Matt Mullenwegg bluntly stating that "Credit card companies are anti-porn." Patreon, too, has initiated crackdowns on certain kinds of NSFW content at the behest of payments processors. Processor hostility to adult content has heightened in the wake of the 2020 scandal where popular adult site PornHub was found to be hosting revenge porn and content featuring minors. That led Mastercard and Visa to terminate service to the site—a termination that continued even after PornHub went nuclear on videos from unverified performers. Credit card companies categorically do not want their names associated with that kind of reputation-damaging content, to say nothing of the increased risk of chargebacks and fraud that comes from online pornography. Meanwhile, Valve categorically does not want Steam users to suddenly find themselves unable to buy games using ubiquitous payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal, meaning it's a lot easier to simply bow to their whims than stick up for adult game devs. The fact that Valve doesn't feature live performers in the adult games on its platform—it's hentai as far as the eye can see—apparently bears little relevance here. We might not miss the glut of incest-themed games that have seemingly (but I stress it's not been confirmed) been hit by this rule, but I fear it's the thin end of a very thick wedge. On the one hand—as much as I enjoy poking fun at the more obsessively goonerlicious games that mark our hobby—it's my position that what other people get off to is none of my business, the usual caveats about everyone involved giving informed consent applied. On another, darker hand, there's a not-unreasonable fear that what begins as a crackdown on porno shovelware could eventually spread out to target queer creators and games of all stripes. "It's the quiet normalization of financial censorship and it's going to hurt LGBTQ+ games and devs," writes NoahFuel_Gaming in a popular Bluesky post. "Banks like Visa and Mastercard are now backdoor moral authorities. They already pressured Patreon, OnlyFans, and others to remove NSFW content. Now Steam is next. And guess who they'll target first? Queer, transgressive, or 'unusual' games. "Queer content gets flagged as 'explicit' even when it's PG. A trans dev making a personal story? 'Too controversial.' A surreal queer VN? 'Sexualized.' Financial deplatforming in action." In a time of seemingly global reactionary backlash against LGBT people and queer lifestyles, it feels more important to push back on this kind of puritanism than ever. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bluesky is adding age verification features for users in the UK
Bluesky users in the UK will soon need to verify their age if they want continued access to direct messages and all of the service's content. The company will begin rolling out age verification features later this month in order to comply with a UK law that requires platforms that offer adult content to confirm users' ages, Bluesky said in an update. The company says it will use Epic games' Kids Web Services to conduct age verification checks, and that people will be able to choose between several different methods, including face scans, ID scans or using a credit card. Bluesky ssers in the UK who don't verify their age will no longer be able to access direct messaging or see adult content shared in the app. Bluesky notes that it's making the change in order to comply with the terms of the UK's Online Safety Act, which requires websites and apps that permit adult content to verify the ages of their users. The law, originally passed in 2023, is set to take effect July 25. While the update will only affect Bluesky users in the UK, officials in the US have been pursuing similar measures for years. The US Supreme Court recently upheld a Texas law requiring porn sites to conduct age verification checks on users. Digital rights and privacy advocates in the United States and the UK have long criticized these measures, saying that they erode privacy and create more opportunities for children and adults' data to be misused.
