It appears that the proposed UK law about who can access porn sites will require all visitors to identify themselves, or run nonfree software which is likely to snoop on them.

The intended purpose of that law is to prevent minors from accessing porn sites. To exclude everyone under 18 is unreasonably strict. They try to justify this by referring to all minors as "children". Even a person of age 17 is a "child" according to them.

To exclude only children -- real children -- from porn sites might be ok in principle. But how to determine whether a given user is under the specified age? The methods mentioned in the article either directly require a user to identify perself, or indirectly require per to make perself vulnerable to being identified.

"Contacting your mobile network provider to allow your phone to access [porn]" would seem to permit only access through devices that are untrustworthy: mobile phones, communicating through a cellular network).

Regarding "Facial age estimation technology", one question is, will that glimpse of your face enable identifying you by facial recognition? Another question is, how will they make sure it is operating on a real-time image of your own face rather than someone else's? I suspect that will depend on locked-down nonfree software, simply because I don't see how else it could work.

I don't have a concrete idea of what a "digital identity wallet" would do, but I have a hunch that only locked-down nonfree software will be accepted.

If you know more about those last two approaches, and if you can tell whether they can be made to work without unjust surveillance or unjust nonfree software, I would appreciate your telling me about them.

GNU Taler can be used for age verification in a way that does not permit web sites to identify the user, and does not require nonfree software.

*Israel’s use of disproportionate force is a long-established tactic –- with a clear aim.

The strategy goes well beyond defeating an opponent: it seeks to destroy key infrastructure and the economy, with many civilian casualties.*

*Leading News Outlets Are Doing the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Greenwashing.*

France is on the way to banning disposable vapes. I support this measure. For a given intensity of use, vaping nicotine may be less dangerous than smoking tobacco, but it seems to spread addiction among masses of people.

Australia has stepped up the investigation of accusations of corruption against federal functionaries. Bravo, Australia!