Sexual Health subreddits r/STD and r/SafeSex are being blocked for under 18s due to the Online Safety Act. An issue for those aged 16-18 who might well go there for advice. #onlinesafetyact #reddit #sexualhealth
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@JamesBaker Will mastodon be affected by online safety act? It's decentralised.
@anonywooolf Yes anyone hosting an instance would have liabilities under the act it as it would be a user-to-user service. How Ofcom will enforce decentralised services like Mastodon or Usernet not sure.
@JamesBaker I know I said this before but I really hope OSA and other groups are planning some from of legal challenge to the AV rules.
@JamesBaker Going to reddit for advice??? Reddit is awful
@JamesBaker
I forget who said it, but nothing is gonna turn lazy teenagers into crack hackers then a law saying they can't do something on line !!
@JamesBaker hopefully this is going to make more people aware of reddit front-ends that let you browse subreddits without having to use the app or an account, like Redlib.
@noodlejetski Yes the silver lining of all of this is that many teenagers are going to become far more tech savvy. They will find ways to access information although sadly some of those ways will expose them to new risks
@JamesBaker yeah, that's my concern too. plenty of free VPNs that totally don't sell your data out there.
@JamesBaker yikes, this bothers me a lot. If there's anything they should be able to access it's information about health and wellbeing. This safety act is so poorly executed.
As if STDs and pregnancy only affect people who are 18 and above. 🤦♂️
Seems it’s just a blanket ban on any subreddit within a /NSFW tag so some advice subreddits are not covered other larger ones like R/STD are. Seems based on your IP so a VPN gets around it
@JamesBaker oddly, I get an AV page on Pornhub, but not Reddit's nsfw subreddits (VPNed into my home network in the UK, as I'm at IETF in Madrid). I wonder of Reddit's geoip DB is on the wonk.
@JamesBaker
No, it's fine, unable to find any information, they will simply abstain.
No, it's fine, unable to find any information, they will simply abstain.
@JamesBaker @neil yeah kids: we’ll let you fuck, but not read about how to do it safely 🙄
@neil @JamesBaker *whispers* people under-16 have sex and use the Internet too! 😆
Pretending sex and sexual health doesn’t exist for under-18s, and gatekeeping it, is counter productive and downright dangerous 🤨
