Welcome to Big Brother's Internet

What the Online Safety Act means for access to information and our right to privacy

This Online Safety Act finally kicked in last week in the UK, and it isn’t pretty. And, of course, it’s all under the guise of protecting us. How noble it is of the government to care so much for us. Big brother is always watching, right?

So much of this is being placed under the banner of “protecting children,” so as result, you might now have to share your government ID or even facial scan just so you can listen to Spotify, scroll YouTube or post on/browse BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, Grindr, X—and even Wikipedia.

And while we might want to keep young people from inappropriate content, perhaps that is best monitored by their parental units? Not their nanny (state). How do we even determine what’s age appropriate or not? Sure, explicit content might be obvious—but what about candid discussions of sexual topics that might affect their lives directly? It’s not as if they turn 18 and immediately go from child to adult. Legally, yes. But in the practical world? No.

The legislation would impose fines on or even potentially block social media companies and other websites that fail to keep “harmful” content from under-18-year-olds—and that’s not merely limited to pornography.

Apparently, in an attempt to comply with the new Online Safety Act, social media companies are limiting access to things like posts about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the parliamentary debates on grooming gangs. Those who have not completed age verification checks are restricted from access (on X and Reddit). On Reddit, support groups for sexual assault survivors and for those wanting to quit substance abuse are also blocked off.

If companies are being a bit overzealous with their content censorship, it should come at no surprise when a £18M fine or 10% of their global revenue is at stake.

Of course this doesn’t restrict access to information merely for those under age, but also any adults that are not keen on giving away their privacy and private information just to be able to view something. It’s creating a less informed populace.

And this isn’t a UK-only issue. These types of laws are being pushed worldwide—including Ireland, Canada, and even the U.S. In June, the United States Supreme Court, for example, had backed age-checks for porn websites.

“HB 1181 simply requires adults to verify their age before they can access speech that is obscene to children,” Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s 6-3 majority opinion. “The statute advances the state’s important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data.”

This sounds rather sensible—a way to protect children from inappropriate materials, until you realize what the implications are for adults who now have to have personally identifying information tied in to their porn browsing history. What could go wrong?

What’s more, these laws might not be all that effective for keeping children out. According to one study, led by David Lang of Stanford University's Polarization and Social Change Lab, they might actually make things worse. Google Trends data from states with age-gates, revealed that rather than comply, both minors and adults end up being driven to websites that do not comply with local laws, as well as using VPNs to mask their geolocation so that they can appear to be browsing from a state where no such laws exist.

So far, more than 470,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the act to be repealed. A response by the government was given on July 28. The bottom line? “The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act.”

Look, we all want to “protect the children.” But these laws don’t exactly do that. Kids and adults alike lose access to potentially vital information, as well as our right to privacy. Those aren’t insignificant issues, and these laws are expanding quickly around the world.

If we allow governments normalize censorship under the guise of safety, we trade an open internet for one where only “approved” speech survives. That should scare us far more than the platforms these laws claim to tame.

If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in my book, which deals with restrictions on free expression: No Apologies: How to Find and Free your Voice in the Age of Outrage!