One of the biggest hosting sites for animated adult content has issued a scathing rebuke against the UK government's new online safety bill.
The UK is waking up this morning to the effects of the Online Safety Act, legislation passed in an attempt to protect children from harmful online content. As of July 25, those wishing to access adult material will have to prove their age by either scanning their face via a webcam, or by uploading proof of age via a government ID.
Introducing that screening technology has been a possibility for larger sites like Reddit, especially since those are often able to limit adult content to specific communities. But other sites have simply blocked UK users as part of an easier catch-all process. Those include one of the leading Rule 34 sites, which are based around the idea that animated adult content can exist around pretty much anything you can think of.
Those attempting to access the site from the UK today were met with an 'Access Restricted' message. A helpful "Gooner TLDR" at the top explains that the site is "blocked in the UK to comply with regulations," and that "Ur gov is dumb, we're looking into solutions." The longer explanation reads that "the financial cost of implementing age verification per user is prohibitively high, rendering it impossible for us to sustain operations under these mandates."
While the site claims to be "deeply committed to safety and compliance," it also states that "requiring age verification for fictional cartoon content is an overreach" that "unfairly burden[s]" artistic platforms. It also says that the need to upload government ID "jeopardize[s] user privacy." The post also directs users to the official UK government petition to repeal the Online Safety Act, which has amassed more than 65,000 signatures. The petition states that the Act is too wide-reaching in its remit, and has affected hobbyist sites that don't have the resources to adapt to the new legislation.
The change comes amid a broader attack on adult content in the gaming space. While the Act might block UK gooners' ability to look at pictures of Roadhog's hog, recent bans on adult content across Steam and Itch.io - blocked by credit card companies encouraged to act by an Australian anti-porn group - has also caused controversy as users worry about growing censorship of the video gaming scene. While Overwatch has long-since been a bastion of adult content around gaming (even if it has been recently overshadowed by Marvel Rivals), the concerns run deeper than Blizzard and Marvel fans not being able to get their rocks off.
Steam now prohibits games that violate the "rules and standards" of payment processors, banks, and more, and users are worried it might affect more than just "certain kinds of adult-only content."
