According to Rebecca McKinnon of the Wikimedia Foundation, which supports the site, this would “violate our obligation to collect minimal data about our readers and contributors”.
A senior official at Wikimedia UK fears the site could be blocked as a result. However, according to the government, age verification will only be necessary for services that put children most at risk.
The Online Safety Bill currently before Parliament places obligations on tech companies to protect users from harmful or illegal content, and is expected to come into full effect sometime in 2024.
Neil Brown, an attorney specializing in internet and communications law, said the bill would require services likely to be used by children to have “proportionate systems and procedures” designed to prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, and that could include age verification as well. – writes A.N BBC.
Lucy Crompton-Reid, chief executive of Wikimedia Foundation UK, an independent charity linked to the foundation, warns that some material on the site may trigger age verification.
For example, educational texts and images about sexuality can be mistaken for pornography
– Tell.
The foundation does not allow this
However, McKinnon wrote: “The Wikimedia Foundation will not verify the age of UK readers or contributors. Verifying the age would require Wikipedia not only to collect data on users, but also to radically change its technical systems.”
If a service fails to live up to the bill, there can be serious consequences, including large fines, criminal penalties for senior staff, or restricted access to the service in the UK.
Wikimedia UK fears the bill will block the site, and there is a risk that the law will require age verification.
It is quite possible that one of the most visited websites in the world – a vital source of knowledge and information that is freely accessible to millions of people – will not be accessible to UK readers, let alone UK staff.
Crompton Reid Books.
Wikipedia contains millions of articles in hundreds of languages, written and edited exclusively by thousands of volunteers around the world. According to data from analytics firm SameWeb, it is the eighth most visited website in the United Kingdom.
(Cover photo: Peter McDiarmid/Getty Images)
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