"Unavailable Due to the UK Online Safety Act"

[Dave3093]

I tried to visit a tech blog -[Removed]- and the following message was displayed (I assume from Sky): "Unavailable Due to the UK Online Safety Act". As I say, it's just a tech blog (nothing dodgy). So it looks like it's been mis-categorised. Anyone know how I flag this to Sky?

Moderator notes: Removed 3rd party link

[JimM1]

@Dave3093 Are you new to sky! if so have you looked at the Broadband Shield settings you have against your account?

[Dave3093]

OK, solved it. It seems the site author himself has blocked users from the UK. He links to this page [Removed]- to explain why: 

"The UK's Online Safety Act requires operators of 'user to user services' to read through hundreds (if not thousands) of pages of documentation to attempt to craft "meaningful" risk assessments and 'child access assessments' or face £18,000,000 fines, even imprisonment."

I guess he's decided that keeping his site open to UK visitors is more trouble than it's worth.

FYI, I discovered this by eventually getting through to the original website by using the [Removed]. So this is an effective workaround if you meet the same problem.

Moderator notes: Removed 3rd party link

[Dave3093]

Hi Jim,

I'm not new and my Broadband Shield is set to be wide open.

Dave

[JimM1]

@Dave3093 Got it, was caught mid post with you as checking the link, but you got it all sussed!

[caesarome]

@Dave3093 

I see the same both via Sky Broadband and mobile data with Tesco so whatever is behind this it isn't a Sky issue.

[TimmyBGood]

As the temporarily disappeared post from @Dave3093 explains, the website owner has themselves chosen to geo-restrict it from availability in the UK, presumably as a libertarian protest against that particular legislation (which, given it pretends to give Ofcom global jurisdiction, is indeed somewhat problematic)

" The Act gives Ofcom the powers they need to take appropriate action against all companies in scope, no matter where they are based, where services have relevant links with the UK. This means services with a significant number of UK users or where UK users are a target market, as well as other services which have in-scope content that presents a risk of significant harm to people in the UK. "

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/