“Age verification for NSFW websites”

Although this is a clip from the Heckle Amnesty series (Jimmy’s Laughs Funny tour) I think it may need some context wrapping around it, for anyone outside of the UK (or who doesn’t keep up with tech news).

The Online Safety Act came into force (UK) on the 25^th of July – a bill that had started during the previous (Conservative) Government. Allegedly to “protect children from seeing porn” anyone who had tracked its progress (including me) knew it was a vast over reach (it’s over 250 pages).

In the past few days there have apparently been 5m age verification checks a day…and it’s going to get worse and will not just affect the UK. Websites will introduce it worldwide, just to be sure.

Spotify have introduced age verification (in case you hear a song with a naughty word in it) and X users found that they couldn’t see News reports about asylum hotel protests without verifying their age. VPN enquiries shot through the roof.

Although many people will agree with the spirit of this clip – the wider context is a concern.

I suspect this topic will get brought up again in future gigs.

As the law only came into being on the 25^th – I assume this clip is from one of the gigs at either Southend-on-Sea on the 26^th or Maidstone on the 27^th.