The UK's new Online Safety Acy (+ petition)

So, this is not a happy go lucky "wowwowwow look at my silly cosplays and stupid interests/ layouts go meee" blog that I wanted to post originally. This is serious. Depressingly serious.

It's well-known on here by now, but if you've not heard then here's the shitty news: The UK government had passed a new Online Safety Act on July 24th, which forces those to put proof of age onto any sites that could contain adult themes. This has invertedly caused UK users of SpaceHey to be unable to access the site, as they do not have any viable way to properly verify the ages of UK SpaceHey users as over 18 in a privacy-respecting manner (or at all). The only reason (from what I can see) as to why this is the case is due to the fact that SpaceHey has instant messaging. That is it.

I understand that there are children on the internet. Of course there are. For as long as the internet has been a thing I am sure that there have been kids on the internet, and there will always be kids on the internet; especially in the 2020s, where the internet is basically a necessity of life. But the problem is this: Adults are on the internet too.

The internet is, inherently, adult.

It should be the responsibility of parents to be present when their child surfs the web, to keep them from going onto any sites not for them and to keep them from seeing such things. There are ways to protect kids online that do not force people to give up their online anonymity. But the government doesn't care. The government do not care, have not cared and will never cared.

You may say to yourself "but Eileen, this is good. It means kids can't access porn or other seedy stuff that they're too young for!" But this isn't just affecting porn. Clearly. Just turn on a VPN and switch it to the UK (or turn your VPN off if you're already in the UK.)

This site is affected. This amazing site, that makes me feel welcome. Where I get to learn more about other people's interests, and about things I didn't really know much about. This site where I've made some genuinely cool friends, that I wouldn't even know existed. Where I get to see a tiny glimpse of what the past was like in a safe, pop-up AD free way.

Online LGBT+ forums are affected. Mental Health forums are affected. Sexual Health forums are affected. Forums that DON'T include porn, but are just "mature" or "NSFW".

I will repeat myself: the internet is inherently adult.

To quote my friend @iarlaithe !!: "The government does not care for your safety or your child’s safety ... The government does not care about you. This act is a step closer to complete online censorship, which is a big factor of fascism. England is a fascist country, this has been a proven fact. Labour and Conservative are the same party in different colour ties — remember that," and they are right.

We were cheated out of change. Real change. We were lied to by a man who we thought was tired of the bullshit the government was putting us through. We, my fellow queer, disabled and other kinds of marginalized UK SpaceHey-ans, are being attacked by the party that was supposed to be for us.

We're stuck with these deceitful fuckers until the the next election. But while we can't overthrow the government, or bring out the guillotines (as much as those are tempting ideas ((for legal reasons that was a joke))) there is still something we can do.

This is a petition to repeal the privacy and anonymity disrespecting Online Safety Act. If you are from the UK then please do sign this. While this has already surpassed the necessary goal of 100,000 signatures that doesn't mean we should stop. Every signature is a person saying- no... is a person shouting "we are people. We are not data to be bought and sold. We are people, who deserve privacy. Who deserve community. Who deserve to use the fucking internet without having to prove we're the age we say we are through a shoddy system that is easily sidestepped with a fucking VPN."

If you read this far then thank you, and sorry for going on a bit of a tangent lol. My next blogpost will be one of the more positive ones I planned, promise :3