Hmmm, hope the new 'UK firewall' aka the Internet Security Act doesn't get this forum shut down :(

[felicemaggie]

Hi everyone,

Have just seen this slightly worrying article from the Telegraph today, in relation to the UK's new Internet Security Act - which appears to be causing some difficulties for users of other forums ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... new-laws/

Cheers,

Rich.

[chronicthehedgehog]

:roll:

Sounds like I need to shutdown my Vidtex client https://vd-view.azurewebsites.net/.
It only has a handful of visitors though :D
It acts as a gateway to a few Vidtex services that I have no control over.
Bye bye vd-view :D

[exxos]

This is all something I started working on a few months back in the background as well.. I already wrote a in depth article , assuming Ofcom start attacking us.. Illustrating everything we do to protect our users etc..

The only likely problem is if laws start wanting age verification done via photo ID or whatever... But at that point it would really be up to PHPBB community to figure that out.. but I fear they probably won't, because it's likely going to be a huge headache.. Potentially these laws could destroy every forum if PHPBB can't implement it..

There is only so much I can do to protect us against this.. But again PHPBB would have to implement that system into the forum.. how.. no idea.. I just assume it won't happen. Red tape and costs will likely be the killer as usual...

So small businesses are being destroyed and now governments are going after small communities and destroying them as well... Bleak times ahead it seems..

I pasted it into Grok.. it said..

Your article provides a strong defense of the Exxos Forum in the context of potential scrutiny from Ofcom under the UK Online Safety Act 2023. It effectively highlights the proactive measures you've implemented to ensure safety, moderation, and compliance, while also emphasizing the forum's niche focus and low-risk profile.

Hopefully under these new laws the media and the government will the adhere to their own policies and fine and ban themselves of spreading misinformation....

[Steve]

I saw this informative video about it, and it seems very scary!:

[exxos]

I saw this informative video about it, and it seems very scary!:

Yeah it's one thing to protect children or whatever, but we are just becoming a Nancy State now with small guys being the usual collateral damage again. It gives governments the freedom to shut down any platform, which is why free speech can get suppressed..

Imagine someone being offended by a blown capacitor and then me getting a nasty letter from ofcom.. At first they *should* request the content to be removed.. But if they bother to really check the offences or just give everyone a huge fine and have a nice day...

It's like when I drove on a road in derby and got fined as it was bus only lane.. my bad... To a point.. but the signs are not good enough.. loads of people complaining about it. But by law, they went above and beyond with signs.. so even when they get backlash by the public for better signs... They ignore it... To simple of a money making scheme.. why change it ? That's unfortunately where we are these days. Laws are broken and it's the little guys who have to foot the bill all the time. How can we fight it ? We can't.

It all smells like my issues with eBay and PayPal.. someone could make something up, give a random URL as proof, will it be checked ? I doubt it. Takes to much time..so you end up taking the fallout of companies own incompetence.. There should be more useful laws about that IMO!

Also the governments and media cause the most distress these days.Hate and fear generate clicks. Little is fact checked anymore and it's all biased reporting. Like the Brexit word slinging which often happens like with the GPSR EPR and all that crap which has nothing to do with Brexit.. Nothing will be done about that of course.. I find media reporting VERY disturbing, its why i avoid it now. They not fit for purpose anymore. Where's the enforcement to stop that kinda thing ? Where my millions in compensation for all the daily stress I get dealing with all this crap ?

[exxos]

https://news.sky.com/story/teenagers-ex ... m-13331556

Interesting if true.. no idea how they ending up with that stuff in the first place...

Who remembers the old steak and cheese site ? I mean geese... You could get anything on there.. from jokes to murder... Not nice but you just avoided things like that back in the day. The internet in that respect seems pretty tame to me these days.. but I assume teens move in different circles these days...

[alexh]

I assume teens move in different circles these days...

My lad doesn't seek out the dark corners of the net like we did, but I think it only takes them one visit to a "free stream" website, it puts billions of cookies in your browser cache and from then onwards all adverts become adult themed regardless of the age on your account.

All my social media accounts have my gender in my profile but recently I've been getting bombarded with targetted adverts for women's products. It's not cookie based, I think the girlfriend used my Wifi to buy something last time she visited, advertisers recorded the IP address or something and ever since all my devices show ladies products in all adverts.

[Steve]

The tracking is honestly scary... And Google obviously sells GPS data to Facebook because last week I drove past a local karate dojo on the way to somewhere, then later that night posts from that dojo started showing up on my Facebook feed....

[exxos]

All my social media accounts have my gender in my profile but recently I've been getting bombarded with targetted adverts for women's products. It's not cookie based, I think the girlfriend used my Wifi to buy something last time she visited, advertisers recorded the IP address or something and ever since all my devices show ladies products in all adverts.

I get the same at home.. Like when my mum was trying to find a air fryer, I started getting air fryer adverts on Facebook on my PC, she generally uses a laptop or her tablet..

[exxos]

The tracking is honestly scary... And Google obviously sells GPS data to Facebook because last week I drove past a local karate dojo on the way to somewhere, then later that night posts from that dojo started showing up on my Facebook feed....

My girlfriend and I thinks devices are listening to us, because it has happened multiple times, where we will mention something, then some advert relating to it will pop up somewhere on some feed..

I started mentioning I wanted to buy a pink bucket in the lounge, a blue bucket in the bedroom... Thinking I could track down what was doing it, but I never got any adverts for buckets.... Probably will do now though! :lol: