Traffic to pornography websites in the UK has fallen in the wake of age checks being introduced this year while use of specialist software to dodge viewing restrictions has increased, according to the communications watchdog.
The explanation:
UK porn traffic down since beginning of age checks but VPN use up, says Ofcom
Who could have predicted that, eh?
Well, Sir Isaac could have: Isaac Newton Explains The Laffer Curve
There used to be a data source for hard copy magazine sales – Just 17, puzzle mags, Country Life – it would rank them all. I wonder if it still exists and if any Paul Raymond Publications have crept up the charts by a few spots.
Have you checked railway sidings?
“he sets up shell companies that breed snails”
Oh go on with you!
We farmed snails one summer. They tasted just like escargots – garlic, butter, parsley, and a chewy wee bit of rubber.
There’s some of the big Roman snails around the villa at Chedworth, near Cirencester. They’re a protected species now, but the Romans would have brought them over to eat.
I’ve only had them once. They were OK and I’d eat them out of politeness, but can’t imagine ever ordering them.
Miner’s Arms up at Priddy is – was maybe – famous for serving them.
That seems particularly odd for rural Somerset.
The Romans mined lead up there. Some escaped from the ranches and propagated. I once read a very fun PhD which noted that in the millennia since that specific species of snail has been able to move all the way past Peasedown St John but is currently stuck trying to cross Dunkerton….
Can’t swim?
Water. Road bridges. Not great for snails.
I didn’t know that. I assumed this was coal mining in that area.
Somerset coal field, yes. But also that lead up there at Priddy area.
And at Charterhouse, where you can still see some of the workings.
You can walk from there to Cheddar Gorge at Black Rock through the wonderfully named Velvet Bottom (although for me Tor Hole Bottom nearby is the top name on my list of silly place names).
So traffic hasn’t fallen so much as shifted routes…
Traffic to pornography websites in the UK has fallen in the wake of age checks being introduced this year while use of specialist software to dodge viewing restrictions has increased, according to the communications watchdog.
Having read the article, this seems to be a clumsy phrasing. The second paragraph says ‘… the most visited provider in the UK, Pornhub.’ What they mean, I think, is that traffic from the UK to pornography sites, such as Pornhub, has fallen. That, taken together with the increase in the use of VPNs, is exactly what we’d expect to see.
The point of a VPN is to appear to be as if one were in another country. I started using a VPN when the EU introduced the GDPR guff and American newspaper sites didn’t want to spend the money on making their sites GDPR-compliant. Using a VPN, I appeared to them to be visiting their site from with the US and so got round their restrictions.
It’s the same with porn sites; if the number of visits from within the UK has fallen but the use of VPNs has increased, then that doesn’t mean the number of people in the UK visiting porn sites has fallen. In fact, we have no way of knowing how many of those visits that appear to be coming from outside the UK are actually people in the UK using a VPN. That’s the point of a VPN.
Given the way this government is going there is a good case for using VPNs all the time
I do. My phone is permanently in Sweden.
The key point is “Traffic to pornography websites in the UK has fallen”.
This is what the legislation was supposed to do, so this is what is reported. And what most people will remember.
The bit where pretty much anyone in the UK will be using a VPN or visiting sites outside the UK, is too hard for most people to remember clearly.
So the takeaway will be: government intervention works!
Allegedly the purpose was to prevent below-age access to adult sites
They have no idea if that has fallen and therefore whether the legislation has achieved its purpose
They have fallen into the trap of reporting what they can measure, not hwat they need to measure
It’s astonishing how little understanding “our betters” have of how the modern, electronic, world works…
But they want to introduce Digital ID to make our lives simpler. (No ulterior motives of course.)
Replace “electronic” with “electric”. I think Stanley Baldwin was that last chap in power who had any understanding of the modern world.
No, the point of a virtual private network is to securely extend a private network over a public network. Most VPN use (by traffic, not users) is site to site (head office to/from regional office plus roaming users to/from both; and clients to/from data centres). The use of a VPN to spoof location is a useful subsidiary function.
This isn’t just pendantry. Government regulation of VPNs is inevitable and the details will matter as the ignorant idiot ‘ticians and ‘crats start meddling.
“The amendments would ensure that “protections we have enforced for decades offline apply in the digital age”, clarifying that “material which is too harmful to sell in a shop should not be freely available on a smartphone”.”
This is factually wrong and someone should explain to the peers what the laws actually are. There’s the Video Recordings Act, and the Obscene Publications Act. The Video Recordings Act governs material for sale within the UK. The Obscene Publications Act governs possession and includes importation. These laws have existed since the 1980s before which there was almost no home video. The Video Recordings Act coming into force because of the “video nasty” scare, giving powers to the BBFC to regulate sales of video tapes.
At one time it was illegal to sell a video tape of Reservoir Dogs in the UK as the BBFC hadn’t allowed it to be certified for home viewing, but you could get your mate who was coming over from the USA to bring in a copy for you. If customs had checked they’d have done nothing, as it wouldn’t be considered illegal under the Obscene Publications Act.
As internet porn is streamed from abroad, the Video Recordings Act which governs what can be sold in shops doesn’t apply. The Obscene Publications Act does.
As with much of modern law, this isn’t designed to stop people accessing porn.
They don’t give a fuck about that – at least you’re not out and about discussing the state of the country while you’re you wanking yourself silly.
It’d about controlling you and what you read and say on the internet.
Given that the failure is a) obvious and b) baked-in, I would not be at all surprised if it turns out to be a precursor to another law making it illegal to use VPNs and introducing mandatory ID checks ‘to protect the children’.
If so it will be the perfect law which they won’t enforce unless they need to, against people they want to take down.
Fred Pawle on the situation in Australia:
As he points out, the evidence that they’re not bothered about children is vast.