https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/opinion_column_osa/
'You might think, since I write about tech all the time, my degrees are in
computer science. Nope. I'm a bona fide, degreed historian, which is why I can
say with confidence that the UK's recently passed Online Safety Act is doomed
to fail.
Sorry. We've been there. We've done that. It doesn't work.
Over here in the United States, our greatest failure in that regard was the
"Noble Experiment," AKA Prohibition. From 1920 to 1933, you could not legally
own, buy, or drink alcohol. You can argue it failed for all kinds of reasons,
but the real bottom line reason was that people wanted to drink.
Guess what? People want to watch porn, violent videos, and look up forbidden
information. Heck, like the song says, "The internet is for porn."
Sure, the idea as presented was to make the UK "the safest place in the world
to be online," especially for children. The Act was promoted as a way to
prevent children from accessing porn, materials that encourage suicide,
self-harm, eating disorders, dangerous stunts etc, etc.
To quote former Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, "Today will go down as a
historic moment that ensures the online safety of British society not only now,
but for decades to come."
Yeah. No. Not at all.'
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Cybersecurity: August 12, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-12-136290025
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
