As expected, and right on time, both Bluesky and X have notified users in the UK about the need to verify their ages in order to comply with the Online Safety Act. The stark difference between the two social platforms is their approach.
Bluesky, the baby of the bunch, has opted to address this with a sledgehammer, making it compulsory across the board for all UK users to become verified. Failure to do so results in the loss of DMs and the ability to view “sensitive” material on the platform. X has approached this differently, and will use a variety of means to estimate each user’s age based on history, interaction and status. Where estimation is not possible, users will be asked to self-verify.
X’s approach is quite interesting, and reads to me like they’ve probably had a few more meetings about this one in comparison to Bluesky. Rather than implementing a one-size-fits-all method like Bluesky, they’ve tiered their process, and will automatically exempt pre-2012 accounts from the need to confirm their age.
I’m not too precious about my accounts on either platform, but I’m waiting to see what happens next, especially with X, where (most of) the world still tweets/posts.
With regards to Bluesky, I’ve completely signed out, and will be in a holding pattern to see if they decide to think this one through a little better. My position is clear: I will never show ID to anyone to verify my age in order to use any part of the Internet.
Meanwhile, in other news, VPN demand spiked yesterday in the UK, most likely due to this bill. All I can say is: you bunch of h***y ba****ds! :-)
Bye for now, Bluesky. It was fun while it lasted.