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Imgur blocks UK users after regulator threatens fine over child data use


Imgur is one of the world's largest image-sharing communities, originally created in 2009 by Alan Schaaf as a gift to Reddit users. The service grew into a massive platform, boasting over 60 billion memes, GIFs, and images viewed by its 150 million monthly users. Now, it has pulled out of the UK following a warning of potential fines from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Users in the region trying to access the site are met with the error message: Content not available in your region.


Follow up to: lemmy.zip/post/49898832


Imgur is now geoblocking the UK


This includes the ability to see images embedded into other sites.



Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to BrikoX

Imgur was my daily time-waste app. It has way more content than Lemmy and the memes are fresher (sorry).

I have a self-hosted VPN but its IP range is heavily throttled/blocked by many placces making it of little practical use. Also it is in a country which has also implemented fairly draconian age-check laws.

It seems to me that this age-related stuff could always have been implemented as a layer alongside HTTP(S) which declares whether the user is 18+. The legal aspect of it could be to force sites to comply with that declaration and block mature content to users who don't declare it. Locked-down devices for children would not be able to declare the user is >18, but adults' devices would. (Of course it would be bypassable, but what isn't)

IDK if there's a sane way to enforce this at the router so that the subscriber can set an 18+ password, hand it out to the adults that use the connection, and then you don't need to worry about "locked down devices". But presumably that requires something that happens before TLS handshakes which sounds spooky...

The remaining issue is catching sex ed in the 18+ net. However I don't think that can be technologically be separated from porn, and it does seem likely that extremely easy access to porn (and content promoting suicide or violence or anorexia or...) for children is a bad thing.

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
in reply to FishFace

Privacy issues could be mitigated and to the specific "issue" of children and teenagers accessing adult content basic parenting and conversation would have a bigger impact than trying to forbid it. How has that worked out historically with alcohol or smoking?

By UKs definitions in OSA once considered family shows like Dancing with the Stars and other entertainment productions could be banned. Sexualized content is everywhere in real life, internet just mirrors it, not creates it.

The fundamental issue with age verification is censorship. Once framework is created it can be applied to any other content someone deems you shouldn't access. What is legal today can be illegal tomorrow.