From Coal Mines to Code
In the mid-to-late 18th century, Britain became the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. As the factories and furnaces roared to life, so did the arguments.
Shouldn’t the rich be free to invest in whatever they liked then let the invisible hand of free markets do the rest? Was it any of Parliament’s business to ban seven-year-olds from crawling through coal seams? Or to stop factory owners paying workers in tokens that could only be spent in their own overpriced, low-quality shops?
Parliament steps up
The first of what we now call the Factory Acts was passed in 1802. It was sponsored by Sir Robert Peel. No wild-eyed radical he.
More legislation of a similar nature followed in 1819, 1833, 1842, 1844, 1847, two in 1850, then 1860, 1872 and 1878.
Pretty much every time a new Bill appeared, opponents warned: regulation will strangle business, which in turn will lead to national ruin and the end of civilisation as we know it.
Sounds familiar?
The Online Safety Act 2023
Which brings us to the Online Safety Act 2023.
Is this our 1802 moment?
With everything that is going on in the world of AI, and the technological changes in other fields, it would be surprising, would it not, if Parliament had already uttered the last and definitive word on the subject matter of the Act?
A modern journey
Just as the process of industrialisation completely transformed life in the UK, so digital technologies are doing the same today. We are now on a new and modern journey. We are going to have stay on the case for a while yet.
Do we trust Silicon Valley and the techie universe that has sprung up around it, to make wise decisions about the kind of world we should all be living in? Well plainly we don’t because if we did we wouldn’t have needed an Online Safety Act.
The Act adopted a principles-based approach and this was, unquestionably, the right way to go in 2023, but I’m wondering if, for example, allowing so much latitude in the way age verification can be carried out was the best path to follow? I get that nobody wanted to be over-prescriptive but all this talk about using passports, driving licences or what have you to prove one’s age, understandably, has spooked people, as has chat about hackable databases.
Step forward Information Commissioner. Please.
Maybe I’m just crying out for the Information Commissioner’s Office to become more energetically engaged, more vocal.
It seems people need reassurance about the interface of age verification methods and our wider privacy laws. The Information Commissioner is the obvious authority to give it. Ofcom and DSIT shouldn’t be left to fight this on their own but that’s how it feels at the moment.
VPNs
And the VPN issue? One age verification provider tells me since the new laws took effect a far greater number of people have chosen to age verify with them and other providers than appear to have downloaded VPNs.
I’m anyway having difficulty believing there were that many keyboard warriors out there just waiting for the porn laws to kick in before setting off to find, download and start using a VPN. It’s just too convenient, too pat. Whereas large numbers of people choosing to go through an age verification procedure seems both credible and sensible. You need age verification for all manner of things. Not just porn.
Nervous adults and “rebels”
People might be sceptical about the claims made by individual age verification providers, but if they had confidence in the protections provided by our privacy laws and how they are enforced there would be no need for nervous adults to go looking for a VPN, even if they really did only want to use it to watch porn.
On the other hand if someone wants to download a VPN to show they’re a rebel giving the finger to Parliament, who am I to deprive them of the pleasure?
Would I prefer a policy which worked perfectly all of the time for everyone? Yes. Obviously. But let’s not forget the Act is principally meant to protect children from exposure to harmful content.
What would concern me, therefore, and I suspect probably policy-makers as well, is if any convincing evidence were to emerge suggesting children, particulary younger children, were engaging with VPNs and by so doing were continuing to be exposed to the materials covered by the Act, of which porn is but one.
However, Ofcom’s recent “Passive Online Measurement” study of the behaviour of children between the ages of 8 and 14 suggests the idea that all children are tech savvy pointy heads who can and will determinedly and constantly beat any and all measures designed to safeguard them is misleading to say the least.
Final word for now on VPNs…..
If you think all VPNs are the same and they all provide a watertight guarantee of anonymity online in any and every circumstance you have been seriously misled.
Maybe that’s something else the Information Commissioner could look at.