Opposition to the Online Safety Act in the UK is growing

Since the British Online Safety Act came into force last Friday, not only porn websites but also platforms such as Reddit and Discord have had to use age verification systems. The aim is to protect minors from content that is harmful to minors. However, the effectiveness of these measures is now in question – as they can be circumvented with simple means, such as the photo mode in the video game "Death Stranding".

Developer Dany Sterkhov demonstrated that the facial recognition systems k-ID on Discord and Persona on Reddit can be tricked using the virtual protagonist Sam Bridges, as reported by The Verge. In photo mode, the character can perform realistic facial expressions and head movements – enough to fool the systems and gain access to age-restricted content without any real biometric data or proof of ID.

Members of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) showed back in 2022 how easy it is to trick video ID procedures. In addition, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has been warning for years about AI-supported manipulation techniques that facilitate identity fraud.

Resistance to the new requirements is also growing: A petition against mandatory age verification has already collected over 400,000 signatures. The broad support shows that the measures are strongly perceived as an encroachment on digital self-determination. The British Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, explained on X that those who want to abolish the Online Safety Act are "on the side of offenders". Metro had reported on this.

Critics then accused the government of discrediting legitimate data protection concerns. The affected platforms and the responsible British regulatory authority Ofcom have not yet responded. It had announced its intention to strictly monitor compliance with the Online Safety Act.

(mack)