by Alec Muffett
Too bloody right “it can be overridden” – this is arrantly “flying a kite” to see if/how hard it fails rather than to commit to failure:
From next spring, Britain’s oldest children will be urged to refrain from using certain apps with a midnight to 6am block being switched on by default. But the curfew will not be mandatory and can be overridden.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/14/uk-16-17-year-olds-midnight-social-media-curfew
Being unable to sleep due to the temperature here in the village, I ended up browsing the Web on my phone and eventually ended up, several miles into the rabbit hole, on this website.
I’m very pleased that there are other people in Hartley Wintney who recognise the ridiculousness of the policies etc being implemented by the Government (thankfully they’ve ruled out a VPN ban for now…) and the potential for harm incurred as a result.
I’m curious if you’ve written to our MP on any of these subjects? Whilst she’s generally portrayed as very out of touch (being much more concerned with chalk streams than legislation like this which will require tens of millions of people in the UK needing to go through identity verification (won’t somebody please think of the children!!!) in order, risking their privacy, exposing them to blackmail, identity theft, violence etc, allowing their information to be utilised by AI models allowing for things once considered science fiction, that are now science fact) – she is unfortunately one of the only people able to vote against these ridiculously invasive, draconian laws and due to her previous work, she’s one of the few MPs who are in a position where the Government will struggle to label her as on the “side of pedophiles” if she opposes the legislation.
You’re obviously very articulate and have the professional knowledge and backing to hopefully get through to her – I would (naively) hope that things like the Tea app incident – where thousands of women are now at risk of retribution after having their identities exposed, alongside private comments they’ve made about Men they were interested in – would be enough to convince her to act.
Now I don’t have dozens of people working for me, but it takes 5 minutes to think of so many better ways to create a safer digital world without enforcing draconian restrictions that harm more than they help (in just a few months, if Google or Apple comply with Government demands, the contents of our phone screens will be monitored at all times and stored god knows where / accessed by god knows who). Just basic stuff like requiring, by law, all major operating systems and VLOPs to utilise a common framework & design for implementing local parental controls so that it’s easy for the tech illiterate to apply them. Requiring the same companies to implement bug bounty programs and requiring them to remediate vulnerabilities within a designated time frame (and provide reports to Ofcom or whatever body would be responsible, in the event that vulnerabilities are not fixed within said timeframe). Requiring those same companies to have a dedicated department for parental controls, which must be contactable via live chat, email and telephone, including reporting to Ofcom (or whomever) on things like average response time so that companies like Meta can’t just hire one person and call it a job done. Requiring those same companies to pay a levy of 0.x% of their annual profits to pay for an independent body responsible for providing schools with designated individuals and contacts who can assist with implementing parental controls. Implementing legislation that requires parents on certain child benefits to complete and pass courses demonstrating that they are able to implement parental controls and implementing legislation that makes parents liable for their children’s activites on devices – parents are penalised for being negligent in the physical world (e.g. letting teenagers share alcohol) but for some reason, are let off totally scotfree when it comes to technology – didn’t bother to implement any of the many, many protections available to prevent your child from accessing gambling websites? Oh that’s fine.
Anyway, I’ve finished my rambling rant – hopefully I can sleep soon!
(Whilst I’m at it, have you ever spoken to Phill Robinson? He’s also in the village, I’m sure has a lot in common with you and is “the most connected man in UK tech” – let me know if you organise Hartley Wintney’s first TED talk)
I don’t think I know him but the idea of having TEDx Hartley Wintney (or some kind of Barcamp) is amusing. Maybe we should get together and compare notes?
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