Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
UK porn watchers could have faces scanned (bbc.com)
33 points by Stevvo on Dec 5, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments



This is incredibly stupid and petty.

Doesn't the UK government have anything better to do? The obvious and mandatory prerequisite before rolling out such pointless legislation is to have an accurate way to verify age that is also reasonably difficult to circumvent... which doesn't exist.

If I were from the UK I'd be more ashamed of the adults than the kids.

> Acceptable methods could include: ... [list of ideas that don't work] ... credit card checks

Bingo. Most sites already have this so it's a whole lot of hot air. This goes directly after the free porn sites, but it's trivial to just use a VPN and pretend like you're in the USA.


The UK governments' alternating fetishisms for ID cards and porn permits are kinkier than anything.


I swear. There is something sexual in nature with the British govt.


Sounds good. Habitualise everybody into granting camera access when they go to porn sites. What could go wrong.


And I thought the USA was already criticized for "big government". The UK and EU seem to be in a competition with each other.


In the series of “What could go wrong”, delivered you by the government of Boris Johnson and co


Makes me think of the "Oh face" from "Office Space" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rROS6u8uR9Y


So VPNs or p2p. Nowadays kids are much smarter (or at least, used to tech) than these politicians, to be honest. I don't understand how far from reality they must be.



The bedroom is not the business of the state. What people do in the privacy of their own homes is their business. Gatekeeping sex behind age is also stupid, because all of us were once teenagers and remember the things we felt and did.

It would do our societies far more good to deliver proper, candid, and realistic sex education for our youth AND adults. I'm talking beyond just the mechanics of sex, too. Infectious disease theory is necessary. Discussion of consent, kinks, personal boundaries, they are ALL necessary, and it doesn't happen.

We can go further and offer lectures/seminars for habitual porn use, or maybe groups for people to discuss their relationship with sex and their desire to make it healthier.

Invading people's privacy is not going to make people want sex less. Libido isn't something we should be shaming or isolating. It's an instinct and an emotion, and it can be handled like one.

As usual, the UK can't seem to get its head out of its ass regarding its social conventions. How much does the average UKer know about healthy sex anyway? Probably close to us on the other side of the pond in America with the inherited Victorian repression.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: