egafd.com

As everybody knows, the British Government is introducing ID checks for anyone in the UK visiting a website judged to be pornographic anywhere else in the World. Without going into it, this is a huge problem for website administrators from so many perspectives. Here's the solution! Well, at least, here's my solution.

You create a sub-domain that carries a mirror of your site, and redirect all UK traffic to the sub-domain using htaccess. In the event that the BBFC makes contact and asks you to comply, you obscure any image or redact any text that they find unacceptable. Make this as obvious as possible, provide clear notices of who is responsible for this censorship. Name names. And provide easy links to easy methods of circumvention.

Here's about the easiest: download the free browser with built in VPN and Ad-Blocker from Opera. . It'll take you less than 10 minutes to get up and running. It's almost indistinguishable from Safari or Chrome, except that it's faster. And there's a button in the address bar to activate the VPN for any site you think is censored. There might be a slight speed penalty, though I haven't noticed it.

It doesn't cost much to get a proper VPN. But look around carefully before you sign up. Some are not quite as private as they claim. I recommend and also has a good reputation.

So once you have a VPN you can choose a location inside the UK and visit then choose a location elsewhere in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Africa, South America or quite a lot of other places, and you'll have the Site without censorship.

Or alternatively, just give the guys at a shout and have them install an compliant Age ID script for you. This will be free for you to use as the website operator and free for the customer to use as well... AVSecure will even install it on the website for you for free too.

You will then be in compliance with the laws when they come into effect.

Sounds a bit simpler than trying to circumvent the law, but that's just my opinion.

No Offence personally to the OP, but its pretty simple to stay compliant.

Whoops. Thats I forgot to add the https above to make the link clickable.

Interviewed the AV Secure guy about why his service was free. Have a listen

Thanks for the link Snow Patrol. Their system is very interesting but doomed to fail, I suspect. I'm suspicious of their business model. And I'm very choosy about what scripts run on my server. I certainly don't let anyone else install anything on it. Full stop.

Maybe these guys at AVsecure are honest to goodness kind Samaritans, who are going to take over the onerous task of keeping the Internet safe for little children. Or maybe they're a bunch of fellas from Miami with a get rich quick scheme. That's right, Miami FL. As it happens, I think they might not pass the BBFC's Guidance because they won't be able to show that the user accessing the Internet is the same person as the person who got identity checked. The Draft Guidance is up for public consultation now, here You need to respond by 23rd April if you want to.

Or maybe, just possibly, the purpose of these regulations is for perverts in the British Government to assuage their guilt as they jack off. Did you know that Michael Rock, the British Government's advisor on the Child Protection Internet Filters was prosecuted for downloading pedophile porn. The police seized computers in 10,Downing Street! Wasn't a lot of press coverage of that, was there?

What no one seems to have woken up to is: the question of how secure the ID data is processed and stored is immaterial. Just assume that it will all be kept totally confidential foe eternity. However as it is now, everyone is being tracked 24/7/365 by user ID references. Your dossier is compiled mainly through persistent cookies and browser fingerprinting. Facebook is so powerful because people like lemmings signed up to become Mark Zuckerberg's friend. They give him their real name, DOB., town, school, university, employment, mother's maiden name, name of first pet, and then let Mark know if they aren't going to be home tonight before 10pm so he doesn't have to stay up worrying. But wait, give AV companies certified identities with unique cookies and they'll have unimpeachably accurate data about every thing you do online to rival Facebook. Well MindGeek will. No one else is gonna get a look in.

What's the danger? Well when you go online and type something into Google (please, for God's sake ditch Google), you probably imagine that what you are trying to find out there in all the information ever published anywhere is down to you to find. You will sift through all the results and discover the facts for yourself. But what if what you find on the Internet is the things that someone else has decided to push at you? What if some algorithm that knows more about you than your Mother, your Partner, your God, or your conscience, or your unconscious has decided this is what to show you? This is what you will respond to.

It's an old adage. There's no such thing as a free lunch. If it's free, you are the commodity.

Good interview, Terry. He dodged the question.
How is it free? Why is it free?

As for the card. I like it. But, as I remarked on Twitter, "Hey Bruv, if you're going down to Mr Patel's, can you get me 20 Marlboro, a pack of Special Brew, and one of those AVsecure cards?"