For a site operator who seems really concerned about potential liability under this law, I sure wouldn’t have put this in writing. Feels like it really undermines the rest of the post and the compliance measures being taken.
There's literally "Best VPNs For Accessing Porn in the UK" articles, they'll be fine.
It isn't, the Ofcom OSA act codes explicitly say that the site cannot explicitly tell people how to get past it's verification methods.
> There's literally "Best VPNs For Accessing Porn in the UK" articles, they'll be fine.
They're on journalism sites that are explicitly exempted from the law, so they aren't advocating for getting around that specific site's methods.
It will be interesting to see how this works on any social platform though. To my reading of the guidance Ofcom require Reddit, BlueSky/Twitter etc to block any posts discussing using a VPN to get around it, or at least require age verification to access those posts too.
But I think that contradicts other parts of the legislation, and Ofcom have got themselves into quite a predictable mess.
Yes, but the recommendation was for the platform, not the users ("For a site operator who seems really concerned about potential liability", emphasis added). Spelling out how anyone (including minors) can get to the site without any age check may not be an issue for users' own good but a liability for the platform
Not saying I agree or disagree, just clarifying what the text above meant
But I doubt this is specific enough to hit that bar - it is more of a factual note about what the law is for UK users rather than a specific call of "don't use our verification methods, use a VPN instead."
Every other Youtuber these days is thanking NordVPN for sponsoring their channel then proceeds to walk through specifically how to use it to view geoblocked Netflix content, and they (and NordVPN!) are fine.
People aren’t prevented from using VPNs in the UK, in case anyone is unclear on this.