Ask HN: How many of you are working in tech without a STEM degree?

  "Tech firms must introduce age checks to prevent children from accessing porn, self-harm, suicide and eating disorder content"

  "Bluesky, Discord, Grindr, Reddit and X among latest firms to commit to age-gating, while Ofcom lines up targets for enforcement"

It appears that the concept of utilizing "parental controls" is "not enough" in the UK but the solution to the problem is frankly a more far reaching measure whilst also being absolutely invasive, just like the government asking Apple to allow access to user's data in iCloud that is not protected by end-to-end encryption.

What do you think about this?

Comments (6)

rlupi · 12h ago

I just re-read "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by von Goethe. In the book, the protagonist commits suicide.

It appears that now tech firms cannot even host very significant old books without age checks, which is absurd.

aosaigh · 11h ago

> Over seven in 10 (71%) feel that the measures overall will make a positive difference to children’s safety online, while over three-quarters (77%) are optimistic that age checks specifically will keep children safer.

What do UK parents here on HN think? I'm interested to hear the difference between the sentiments expressed by the "public" and more-technical parents here on HN.

mango7283 · 9h ago

Half the time I see parents on HN crow about how they've blocked their kids access to social media and screens. I'm not sure where they will stand on porn. Would be interesting to see

giantg2 · 23h ago

"It appears that the concept of utilizing "parental controls" is "not enough" in the UK but the solution to the problem is frankly a more far reaching measure whilst also being absolutely invasive"

Your children aren't really your own. The government merely lets you raise them provided you do so without violating restrictions. The government feels they have a duty to protect the children since some/many parents are not capable of preventing the harm they wish to prevent (access to porn etc), so they attack the problem on the industry side.

throwaway843 · 17h ago

VPN use will increase.

jjgreen · 1d ago

Easier to just geoblock the UK.