How is the Online Safety Act age verification actually implemented? How does it affect your daily browsing?

Posted by fasdal@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 81 comments

Non-UK person here. I am curious as to how the OSA has been implemented and how it actually affects your daily browsing online. I have so many questions due to the broad scope of the law:

If you aren't age-verified, can you see what content has been blocked or does the content simply not "exist" on your end until you verify your age? For example let's use Reddit. Can you see blurred NSFW posts (e.g. violent news about war in ukraine/gaza) or do these posts just not appear on your Reddit home page at all in the first place until you verify your age?
How does the age verification work with using incognito mode in browsers? Since using incognito opens a fresh tab with cleared cookie permissions and logs you out of all accounts, does this mean you have to re-verify even if you have already verified a website in non-incognito mode on your browser?
Do you have to verify your age for every applicable website separately? Or is there some sort of global one-time age verification tied to your device?
What about websites where you don't have an account? For example if you're browsing random image websites for an art project. Let's say you age verify and then shut down the computer. You start work again the next day and re-open the websites you were browsing. Since you don't have an account, do you then constantly have to re-verify your age?
How does the OSA work for shared or non-personal computers? (e.g. in the office). For example if your work involves looking at violent imagery (journalism, etc), do you have to log in to your personal age-verified accounts to even see violent NSFW articles and news at all? Or can companies exempt work computers from the OSA?

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nasted@reddit

It hasn’t affected me at all. I guess I don’t watch enough porn?

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Norman_debris@reddit

Your Reddit feed will be censored for NSFW content too, so you're missing stuff that isn't porn.

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Norman_debris@reddit

Lol ok enjoy browsing with parental controls basically turned on.

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nasted@reddit

I am. That’s why I said “hasn’t affected me at all”.

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I tried to research yeast today, (farmer) and I got blocked but my teenager was able to run into my room and show me the graphic in detail shooting that happened in US, it makes no sense that some websites are stupidly strict while other appear not to be at all.

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Norman_debris@reddit

Different definitions then. You mean you aren't bothered by it. I mean it literally has affected you, as in it's affected what you see online.

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nasted@reddit

Oh yeah - I think the legislation is a load of tripe and now the talk of VPN limiting is diabolical. I was answering the question of have I been affected by it (as in has it changed the way I interact with the internet).

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TheGeordieGal@reddit

I was blocked from places talking about mental health (I think it was specifically the people looking for help/support with self harm and suicidal thoughts that got it blocked) so it’s not just porn. Apparently Spotify are doing it for some things too.

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BuncleCar@reddit

And /r StopDrinking is blocked too. I tried as I don't drink so felt safe. When I did get in it was mostly upbeat successes but with occasional relapse stories

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hanningsbee@reddit

I’ve been blocked from subreddits about pregnancy related things. I am pregnant and honestly just needing to ask questions about my own body lol.

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hdhddf@reddit

this is what's dangerous about it, you're not seeing the online world as it is. use a VPN and you'll probably notice a frew Reddit communitiea you haven't seen in a while. the OSA isn't really about porn or protecting children

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nasted@reddit

I disagree. People use the internet differently and many do not want to see NSFW content and are not encountering the issue.

But as OP asked how has it affected daily browsing, my answer is honest - it hasn’t. Don’t mistake that for not understanding the wider implications of the legislation or agreeing with it.

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hdhddf@reddit

you not noticing isn't that same as no difference, that's what's so sinister about this bill, most people don't realise there are being restricted from content they viewed in the past.

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lowman222@reddit

I've always used a VPN previously, it's just good practise in today's world.

So it's not really affected me at all. I definitely wouldn't submit ID or biometrics to an unregulated US company either way.

If they ban VPNs (a ridiculous concept anyway), people will switch to TOR. It'll be distributed by torrents. Good luck trying to enforce that one.

It's a waste of everyone's time and energy if you ask me. If I can get around it, then a young person who has grown up with this technology will definitely be able to, no matter what restrictions they put in place.

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Silly-Marionberry332@reddit

Let the torrents rise again 😂

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lowman222@reddit

Bring back Limewire 😂

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BuncleCar@reddit

Yes, I started using a VPN about 10 years ago as the coffee shop WiFi strongly recommended it. I used it on my phones and my pc. I used Mnt Linux on the PC so use PIA as it sponsors Linux Mint

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seven-cents@reddit

Thing is, it really doesn't have much to do with "protecting the children".

It's a step towards monitoring what people do online, no matter who they are.

This is only the beginning of it, and it's not limited to the UK, it's happening all over the world.

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lowman222@reddit

Absolutely, the moment that things such as SA help, and political content got banned, it was clear it had nothing to do with protecting children.

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seven-cents@reddit

With the additional benefit of keeping kids in the dark. Not old enough to read it maintains ignorance, and ignorance plays perfectly into the hands of the people in control of freely available information.

Ignorant kids grow into ignorant adults who are easily manipulated.

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ShortyStrawz@reddit

1). It somewhat varies from website to website, some websites are (understandably so) being over protective because "legal but harmful" is very vague: is that sex? Drug? Booze? Etc. for example: Reddit blocks things tagged NSFW, but also I can say the word "Fuck" in this post with no conciquence.

2). It's not your ISPs. It is requiring ANY website that hosts user made content to validate users their end; a huge burden for small websites. So being incognito doesn't change that.

3).Yes. Because every website can implement different verification. This is why I don't really get the "government wants OSA to track your every move!" Crowd because a government website that validates your age would be the lesser of 2 evils as opposed to a 3rd party company. The government knows everything about you anyway, if we "have" to do this, do it through a gov website.

4).can't speak for all websites, but in my experience theyll ask you to make an account and age verify (laughs in VPN).

5). No idea, don't work in an admin envioment.

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bigcancerchallenge@reddit

laughs in VPN

Be aware that many of the countries you might be tunnelling to with a VPN are also thinking of implementing the same laws, and many countries have porn laws stricter than the UK.

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ShortyStrawz@reddit

I'm aware of the EU one, the US' KOSA and Australia banning under 16s from social media (something I only assume will be done with age verification).

When I mention VPNs, it's fair to say that for the forceeable future, I'll be using this rather than being age checked by 3rd parties.

As for "Stricter porn laws" I don't really see how that matters? Far as I'm aware, it's requiring adult content to require age verification. X type of porn won't be illegal here because it's banned in Y country; that's why 4chan is refusing to pay Ofcom fines for that same logic.

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Glittering-Round7082@reddit

It hasn't really. I have just found websites that aren't adhering to it.

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Trombone_legs@reddit

UK VPN servers are affected so you can try and have a look if you wish. I haven’t tried my work VPN but assume that as it has a U.K. IP address then I would be faced with the same as my private computer/devices.

I may have cause to access restricted sites for work, but haven’t yet. I was already using VPNs on my private devices so haven’t had the need to age verify yet and have no plan on doing it.

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BuncleCar@reddit

I found I could access /r stopdrinking with my VPN set to one of the UK sites (Southampton I think), but not if I had no VPN on

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bigcancerchallenge@reddit

The blocking is mostly done (not always) based on your location which is usually based on your IP address. This is a bit ridiculous as it assumes that the original carving up of IP addresses based on country is still valid which in many cases it is not.

What this means is that your VPN could be using a server located in the UK but in an "ambiguous" IP address - I have found that NordVPN seems to do this so I frequently have problems with appearing in the UK despite using a UK server as my endpoint. This means I sometimes get Swedish Google, or the BBC sends me to the .com site instead of the .co.uk one, and I can't play the national lottery as "you are outside of the UK". The worst is Ticketmaster who then won't sell me tickets using a VPN even if the endpoint is in the UK.

I found I could access /r stopdrinking with my VPN set to one of the UK sites (Southampton I think), but not if I had no VPN on

This is probably because of what I've said above - the server is in the UK but using an ambiguous IP address that originally was allocated to another country.

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BuncleCar@reddit

Thank you. I don't understand it, but thank you for your efforts 🐱

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Tasty_Selection_4658@reddit

It just doesn't show up in my feed anymore.

I'm personally glad tbh; I was fed up of reading about Palestine Israel and seeing pictures of dead children. It sucks for them but I don't need to be personally exposed to misery porn regularly.

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SoggyWotsits@reddit

I’ve been asked a few times when looking at someone’s profile and finding it has NSFW stuff. A popup covers half the screen and the NSFW stuff doesn’t show. It’s either turn on my VPN or just not bother looking.

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90210fred@reddit

If I wanted a uncensored content I'd be already using a VPN to content to a Usenet server somewhere far away with SSL. There's a few bits of Reddit have vanished that are harmless (other people have mentioned them) and Bluesky seems totally blocked (?) but my real fear is that Wikipedia will vanish - at that point everyone else will pull the plug on the UK.

Minor inconvenience at the moment but really bad precedent. I suspect we'll soon be back 25/30 years when only the tech savvy could access the rest of the world.

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Open-Difference5534@reddit

I haven't changed my browsing habits and I have never been asked for age verification. I don't use a VPN either.

Office computers are usually restricted already, so people can't spend all day on eBay (it happens), so the OSA is not an issue.

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QuestNetworkFish@reddit

On Reddit, posts that are tagged as NSFW just don't appear in your feed, or when viewing a subreddit. If you go to an NSFW post directly (e.g. from a link), click someone's profile that is marked as NSFW, or try to view a subreddit that is completely tagged as NSFW, you will get the popup asking you to verify your age before viewing the content.

Generally speaking you have to verify for each site individually. There are a number of different 3rd party providers, in theory if two sites use the same provider they could come up with a scheme to share verification across multiple sites, but I've not seen this and it wouldn't help when sites use different providers anyway.

If you're not logged in to a site, you will generally see the same thing as a none age verified user (i.e. NSFW content will be hidden). The age verification process is only available if you have an account.

There's no provision in the OSA to exempt work related access to sites, they would have to verify the same as any other user (or use a VPN). There are some vague provisions about sites being required to protect journalistic integrity, but this is more about stopping social media sites distorting news posts and isn't relevant to the adult content/age verification parts of the OSA.

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Noctale@reddit

I've not been asked to verify here, but I can see all NSFW content same as before. I guess they already decided I must be old enough based on my account age and activity.

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luc_gdebadoh@reddit

more likely something weird going on with your ip address or it isn't fully rolled out yet

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Noctale@reddit

Legally it has to be fully rolled out now. My IP is detected as being in the UK and I'm not using a VPN. It doesn't make any difference what device I use or whether I use the app or a browser. Bluesky asks for verification, as do adult sites, but Reddit, Nexus and Spotify don't. 10+ year old accounts is the only common factor I see. Weird.

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luc_gdebadoh@reddit

i'm an old man. 10year+ accounts are the norm for me and everyone i know. they still ask. it's not that.

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RaedwaldRex@reddit

The funny thing is, this is all to do with collecting data rather than protecting children.

I read a post on here that there was a way to get a cookie from a .gov.uk account thays linked to say your tax account or something that pretty much says over 18 yes/no with no other info in it that would be really simple to implement and would verify someone's age.

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Beartato4772@reddit

And could be faked in miliseconds.

As opposed to the current "Seconds".

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RaedwaldRex@reddit

Yeah I guess.

No different to using a fake driving licence from online or an AI generated portrait or something.

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Own-Priority-53864@reddit

Nsfw posts no longer appear in my feed and when i search for those subreddits like r/crazyfuckingvideos, it doesn't appear in the search bar.

If i click on someone's profile and they're 18+, it will blur heavily and prompt an age verification, which is pretty ridiculous because my profile is 18+ as well and i can view that just fine.

I don't think verification transfers across sites, not really sure though, i've never done it. Even with websites without an account, you'll still be prompted to verify.

That's been my experience so far. It only really comes up when i use reddit, which is not too bad.

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Noctale@reddit

It's weird how inconsistent the verifications are. I can view all NSFW content as normal, yet I've not had a request to verify my age at any point.

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Own-Priority-53864@reddit

I have had some other accounts grandfather in verification - probably from making purchases previously or whatever, but reddit just isn't one of them.
Kinda strange.

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Beartato4772@reddit

Microsoft have told me I need to verify my xbox live account.

An account that is 23 years old.

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Noctale@reddit

Might be related to the age of my account, I hear some sites are using that.

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Beartato4772@reddit

Part of the problem you have here is the law is so vague the answers to most of your questions depend on the site itself.

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BusyBeeBridgette@reddit

I bought an annual subscription to ProtonVPN. Installed it on my router. I did this a couple of days before OSA was enforced.

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Ill_Soft_4299@reddit

I finally weakened and got a VPN. Greetings from Deutschland apparently

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Jimbobthon@reddit

Ich bin ein.......content user

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bumblestum1960@reddit

And a big hello to you from Milton Keynes, Africa.

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

Das ist gut, yah.

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Spiritual_Loss_7287@reddit

Guten Abend. Wie gehts.

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vexedvi@reddit

No impact whatsoever

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Ssimboss@reddit

In terms of access to information, it really cornered me. I prefer not to read media reports of “videos circulating on media”, but to watch it myself without 3rd party comments. At the moment social media started to block access for unverified users to violent and generally uncomfortable content. I’d expect this on Meta platforms but even X is doing this now.

At the moment, Telegram is the last stand for me.

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Noctale@reddit

Zero effect. I've not been asked to verify anywhere. Reddit, YouTube, Steam, Spotify, Discord, Nexus Mods, all working as normal without interruption.

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GlykenT@reddit

Nexus is one place that should be requiring it, at least for qualifying mods. Beyond nude mods & similar, depicting realistic violence or injury to people, animals or fictional creatures is considered "priority content that is harmful to children"

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Noctale@reddit

I agree. But currently I can see all Skyrim mods without having to verify. No VPN and my IP is definitely in the UK. My Nexus Mods account is 15 years old though, so I guess that's proof enough for them.

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LatelyPode@reddit

I’ve been vocally against it before it was against it, even back in 2023, but it hasn’t affected me a ton.

I download my music rather than stream it, I hardly visit an 18+ site, don’t really visit mental health subreddits n stuff. Only annoying thing is i can’t view ppl’s Reddit profiles because it requires age verification.

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BigDsLittleD@reddit

I can't say it has affected me really, I've used a VPN for years anyway, so hasn't really made any difference

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hdhddf@reddit

you can't always see what's blocked or that it is being blocked, I just use a VPN to access anything but it is annoying and sinister that I have to use a VPN to effectively see the news on Reddit.

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RedPlasticDog@reddit

VPN and it goes away

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oudcedar@reddit

I haven’t been asked once for any website or any apps. I think it’s great to try to prevent children seeing and learning from porn. Obviously it will need further tightening up but the principle is there now so we are just at the start of the journey. Making money in the UK from selling VPNs would be my next suggested step for making unlawful.

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nonsequitur__@reddit

If you haven't verified your age, content that is classified as primary priority eg. explicit sexual/self-harm/suicide/eating disorder is blocked outright. It does not appear blurred or filtered and disappears from your view until you verify your age. On Reddit, if you click on someone's profile that's marked NSFW it asks you to show your face on camera.
No saved cookies and no session data = you must re-verify your age every time.
Verification is per platform, not per device. Each website or app that falls under the Act must conduct its own age assurance on its users. It would be more secure for users if the government did it as a one off tbh instead of third parties doing it.
Yes - same as incognito mode.
It's platform specific so for shared devices is the same thing - verification is per account. For work devices, most organisations block all such content at the network level so it doesn't really apply in practise. I can't speak for all professions but for law enforcement and journalism, the media aren't accessed on the open web - they are held and shared via secure platforms and only shared when necessary, which is less often than you would imagine.

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hairylee@reddit

It does not affect my daily browsing, it does affect my nightly browsing though.

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Lenniel@reddit

I had to do age verification once not for porn felt as sad as when the self service person presses clearly over 25 without asking for id 👵🏻 😭

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Cute_Ad_9730@reddit

Zero impact as an adult who occasionally looks at porn. Simple register as an adult if needed. Totally agree with limiting porn access to children.

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GeraltOfDissidia@reddit

It would have completely ruined reddit if I didn't have a VPN. Half the content seems to be flagged NSFW.

God forbid not having VPN access...

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Wiccamanplays@reddit

The only things I’ve been age-checked are Discord and Reddit. Weirdly enough a decidedly NSFW site I visit hasn’t checked me at all

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Princes_Slayer@reddit

It’s not affected my browsing at all, but then again I’m middle aged and tend to look at dog rescue centres or shopping. Utterly boring browsing history here, even before this came in

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maceion@reddit

No effect whatsoever to my viewing. However I do not watch erotic shows.

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KingHippo11@reddit

can't even see my self harm help subreddits. this is bullshit

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Spiritual_Loss_7287@reddit

The only thing I've been blocked on is the Bayonets subReddit. Swords are OK as are pictures of bayonets in Militaria subReddits. Most bizarre.

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Scarred_fish@reddit

I'll pick the ones where there is an obvious misconception.

Firstly, understand this is not some ISP level ban, the OSA places the onus on each website to decide if it is hosting innapropriate material, and how to make sure underage people do not access it. Very similar to the laws umplimented in other countries (such as the US, in some states) quite some time ago.

Do you have to verify your age for every applicable website separately? Or is there some sort of global one-time age verification tied to your device?

The vast majority of sites simply added the UK to their list of age verification geolocations, so, with the US being the leader in this, the majority of age verification services are US based.

What about websites where you don't have an account? For example if you're browsing random image websites for an art project. Let's say you age verify and then shut down the computer. You start work again the next day and re-open the websites you were browsing. Since you don't have an account, do you then constantly have to re-verify your age?

That's not how it works, see above.

How does the OSA work for shared or non-personal computers? (e.g. in the office). For example if your work involves looking at violent imagery (journalism, etc), do you have to log in to your personal age-verified accounts to even see violent NSFW articles and news at all? Or can companies exempt work computers from the OSA?

Again, nothing to do with the company, it entirely depends on the website. If content has been viewed from a user account that is verified, it will usually remain that way until something changes.

If you aren't age-verified, can you see what content has been blocked or does the content simply not "exist" on your end until you verify your age? For example let's use Reddit. Can you see blurred NSFW posts (e.g. violent news about war in ukraine/gaza) or do these posts just not appear on your Reddit home page at all in the first place until you verify your age?

They don't appear. That is reddits strategy, to just eliminate all NSFW content. Again, this is just how they impliment similar legislation in other countries (try setting a VPN to Texas, and it is essentially that same as the UK).

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zig131@reddit

Websites that are free/make money from ads only, and/or don't have an account system are just straight-up blocking UK visitors.

Websites that are well monetized require you to sign in to an account/sign up for an account and use a third party provider to scan ID, or estimate age from a photo/video. That is then stored against the acount, and you are required to be signed into that account to use the website fully.

There is no standardisation.

Reddit doesn't feed an unverfied account any 18+ stuff. If you explicitly go after it, you are prompted to verify.

If you wanna see, you could just VPN into the UK and experience it for yourself.

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maccauuk62@reddit

Greetings from the Isle of Man (at the minute).

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ian9outof10@reddit

It hasn’t massively affected me. I’m still annoyed by it, because it’s stupid. Reddit sometimes wants me to verify - I haven’t bothered.

Yes, most sites need a serrated verification I believe and you usually need an account. For example. An adult site you must sign up and then verify. So you’re very much at the whim of any site’s security process as to how much of your data eventually gets leaked.

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scuderia91@reddit

I think most of your questions stem from you not knowing that the verification is linked to your account on a given site. I verified on reddit so if I log into my Reddit account then I can see 18+ content, doesn’t matter if it’s a shared computer or an incognito tab.

Before I verified Reddit just didn’t show any 18+ content in my feed full stop.

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Ok_GummyWorm@reddit

I immediately paid for a VPN so I didn’t have to upload my ID anywhere but from my experience the content on Reddit just doesn’t exist! I forgot to turn the vpn on went onto Reddit, then put the vpn on and there were loads of NSFW posts on my feed that weren’t there before.

Also incognito does ask for it but unsure if that’s because I tried on chrome and chrome is linked to my gmail.

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OleaC@reddit

I wanted to view Viz comic’s The Vibrating Bum Faced Goats and even with a VPN Reddit prompted me for afe verification. So I found it somewhere else, no problem.