Will Lemmy instances be forced to verify users' ~~ages~~ identities?

I can only answer for dbzer0/anarchist.nexus but FUCK NO. We ain't gonna do that shit lol. If we ever have trouble with the law in any country, we can always backup and move.

Ditto. We were contemplating a flash screen warning with links to VPNs and TOR for affected countries.
- That's how you troll them lol
I was wondering if I chose the right instance migrating over from lemm.ee. Nice to see I did
- ❤
👏🙌

Lemmy.zip is UK based and ended up blocking anyone from the UK from visiting the site 🤷

Compliance depends on the instance. Pick an instance where the admin doesn’t give a dingo’s kidney, or an instance located in a country where the local law doesn’t require age verification.

- I'm waiting to see exactly how the UK plans to compel me, someone who lives outside the UK with a Lemmy server hosted outside the UK, to follow their rules.
  If they find me non-compliant, they can block my site.
- We are witnessing the next step along the way to a completely fragmented web. Sort of like the DataKrash, but in slow motion. This time, it’s driven by legislation instead of a single netrunner.
- I struggle to understand, why do those sites block uk users? Are there really any "international regulations" that demand that if you don't want to comply with whatever arbitrary rules some country set, you should stop serving users from that country?
Hmm, do we know which countries will be exempt? I hadn't thought about that...
Also, how will they enforce who can just ignore the requirement? Will they not take noncompliant websites down by nameservers or something?
- I’ve only heard about UK, Australia and certain states in America. If you live in Kazakhstan next to Borat, you should be fine.
  As always, EU is complicated, so we’ll have to wait and see how that works out.
- There isn't a global law about age verification they countries could be exempt of. It's individual countries doing it.
  And on top of that the laws are different from what I've seen, in the UK for example you have to fullfil certain criteria to fall under that law. But frankly it seems to be a mess in my opinion.
  This is what an age verification service says about it:
  https://www.yoti.com/blog/understanding-age-verification-online-safety-act/

Will Lemmy instances be forced to verify users' ~~ages~~ identities?

If they're located in the UK, sure. But given how small Lemmy instances are, I assume they'll fly under the radar.

Non-UK instances won't be forced to do anything. The UK can't do shit outside their borders, so as long as the instance's operator doesn't set foot into the country, all they can do is block the instance in the UK.

Was wondering about this, I'm in UK, I could just make my own instance, I'm the only user so I verify my own age, federate with everyone. All good? ¯(ツ)/¯
Until similar laws hit other countries

I really don't see that happening. The internet and the real people that build it tend to be innovative tinkerers and hackers. Things get built because there's a need and someone tries to say they can't. P2P, darknets, proxies, VPNs, heck the whole concept of the fediverse defies the idea of control by an external entity. So they may try, but the chances are slim it works.

In the UK the law is largely unenforceable. VPN usage has shot up since it came in and there was a reveal the houses of parliament are exempt from the requirement.

The internet safety law is impacting larger companies that profit from adult content such as red GIFs and pornhub.

Facebook hasn't been called out yet despite the very obvious adult content in their reels.

Smaller sites are flying under the radar for now. Lemmy probably due to it's distributed nature.

the houses of parliament are exempt from the requirement.
Of course, the jerks...
- I've always said the only way to make this fair is for the big sites to publish viewing data

My instance just blocked UK users. Je suis francais maintenant, mate.

Mastodon has nothing they can do to implement digital ID's, which is what age verification is. Lemmy might not have the technology to do it, because it's libre and a protocol.

From my end as a tiny instance with virtually no users I'm watching how enforcement goes on small systems like these.

If they start sending warnings I'll just make browsing content required an account and close sign ups.

I've already gone through and ensured none of the communities carried has the NSFW tag. But that's not really much in terms of protection.

If they start getting around to us I think it'll mean fediverse users in the UK will either need to run their own instance or use a vpn. No way hobbyists can contract age verification.

I've been wondering what this would mean for my instance at !dullsters@dullsters.net signups are closed, but users from other instances can post.
- I think this is a real problem for the fediverse. Because I cannot imagine that ofcom will accept that "the home instanx should have moderated that" will be a defence. And here (and mayve for you) only I am moderating the content on my own instance. It's not possible to moderate all the remote communities I carry.
  Like I say. Once I see action (it will start with warnings) against smaller instances I'll just lock things down to myself and existing users. But it will destroy the threadiverse in the UK.

I don't think I'll block any, but then I only have a few friends using my instance.

I'm in the odd boat that my server in in Australia (for the AU laws), but I call it a NZ instance - where I live