The Online Safety Act now requires digital platforms to verify the ages of their customers. The intention is to block minors from accessing pornography. But the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) is a simple way around the issue that can be used by anyone with some basic knowledge.
Now I do have a VPN product on my laptop which was installed years ago. This was a product supplied by Norton as a package with other software security products. This was obtained to protect me from security issues when using public internet networks in hotels or elsewhere. It enables me to pretend to be in another country for example and can hide my IP address.
Does that mean that age verification systems used by porn sites can be bypassed? Yes it does from my simple tests. That might explain why the number of downloads of VPNs has rocketed of late. But apparently there are potential risks with some VPNs.
To quote from a recent British Computer Society newsletter: “Daniel Card, a BCS member with significant expertise in cyber security, spoke to BBC News about the hidden risks: He said: Many of these free VPNs are riddled with issues. Some act as traffic brokers for data harvesting firms, others are so poorly built they expose users to attacks.”
I think the message is if you are going to use a VPN then acquire it from a reputable provider and expect to pay a small fee for it.
The OnLine Safety Act has been criticised for other reasons – see https://consoc.org.uk/the-online-safety-act-privacy-threats-and-free-speech-risks/. It will certainly not prove effective in blocking access to pornography and even Apple have complained that their security systems may have to be relaxed to meet Government requirements for access to encrypted data – see this BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj54eq4vejo
It appears the legislation may have been invented by lawyers with little knowledge of the technical environment.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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