From eBay To Vinted, UK's "Age Verification" Rules Spreading Already

Detailed summary

From eBay To Vinted, UK's "Age Verification" Rules Spreading Already Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian,The UK's so-called "social media ban" hasn't even come into force…

The UK's so-called "social media ban" hasn't even come into force yet, and already its remit is set to spread beyond social media.

We previously reported that OfCom - the UK's official censorship office - have announced that facial scans aren't accurate enough to enforce the ban, and adults hoping to prove they are over 16 may need to use their photo ID.

Well now Lisa Nandy, the UK's "Culture Secretary" - named in the ironic tradition of Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" - has told the media that the government is going to include non-social media sites in the ban.

The concern is that - allegedly - the direct messaging available between sellers and customers on second-hand selling services is enabling "grooming".

So the ban for under 16s is going to be extended to those platforms as well.

Of course, just as with the "social media ban", the more correct description would be "requiring ID verification from everyone".

Once the "social media ban" is in place to "protect children", you have a wedge in the door that can widen in two directions - either new "dangers" to children can be discovered, or you can broaden the definition of "social media".

Let us not forget what "Culture Secretary" Lisa Nandy said in her speech at the Labour Party conference last month:

The social media ban already exists alongside other new regulations limiting online chats in multiplayer games (unless you verify your ID), "digital curfews" for 16 or 17 year-olds, age gating pornography, or suggested measures like device-level "nudity detection" - which would be, in reality, mandatory software scanning every image you look at and every photo you take, or even TRY to take, in real time.

Opening of the article, excerpted from ZeroHedge. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.