August 2025 PCG Article Discussion


"Two surveys conducted before and after the rules came into place, by a research and data analysis group, suggest that a significant portion of the British populace supports the new laws, but an equally large percentage also reckon that they're not very effective."

I think when it comes down to the purest form of this argument, it boils down to the fact that people absolutely do want to keep children safe online from viewing potentially harmful content and make it a safer space in general for children, but no one seems to know any other way to implement that. No one is arguing against providing measures to protect children online, but seemingly no one has a better solution than the ID verification method.

If there was a better method to protect children online that also respects the privacy of everyone else that uses the internet, we would have already seen it happen, or at the very least there will be a strong argument for a different method that people are rallying behind. Out of the seemingly countless posts, videos, opinions, and takes I've seen on this matter, not one single person proposed a different strategy. To make matters even worse, the ID verification method seems to be incredibly easy to bypass, making it not even very effective at the job it is supposed to be performing.

The larger implications of this are absolutely worrying and is without a doubt going to negatively affect the way everyone uses the internet. The worries about it creating a mass surveillance state are not to be undermined. Collecting any personal data of yourself and storing it on a server where you yourself do not have access to it is the recipe for disaster that we see countless times year after year after year. Just this past week there were reports of a women's dating app getting hacked with thousands of ID cards and other sensitive material leaking online.

It's very hard to figure out how I truly feel about this. On one hand, it really is for the greater good. I do not want to have children born into this world with the same unfettered, uncensored access to the entire internet like I did growing up. I think I have turned out mostly okay as an adult, but I cannot argue that the stuff I was viewing online as early as 8-9 years old did not have a negative impact on my mental wellbeing. No one around that age should ever have full access to BestGore, LiveLeak, countless porn websites, 4chan, SomethingAwful, and more like I did. I chalk it up to the internet still being relatively new around that time, so the impacts it had on children weren't as well-known as they are now. Raising a child in this day and age requires so much more restraint than when I was a child growing up.

But on the other hand, this is just another bit of our privacy gone and vanished completely without us ever getting it back. There are so many dystopian thoughts about the potential impacts of this, but it's hard to see them as being purely fiction. I hate to be this way, but unfortunately in this world there is no longer a sense of real privacy. You can do all you want to try to mask your actions online, but no matter what, there is still something identifying you. This is just going to make it a lot easier for the governments that implement this rule.
 
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"Two surveys conducted before and after the rules came into place, by a research and data analysis group, suggest that a significant portion of the British populace supports the new laws, but an equally large percentage also reckon that they're not very effective."

I think when it comes down to the purest form of this argument, it boils down to the fact that people absolutely do want to keep children safe online from viewing potentially harmful content and make it a safer space in general for children, but no one seems to know any other way to implement that. No one is arguing against providing measures to protect children online, but seemingly no one has a better solution than the ID verification method.

If there was a better method to protect children online that also respects the privacy of everyone else that uses the internet, we would have already seen it happen, or at the very least there will be a strong argument for a different method that people are rallying behind. Out of the seemingly countless posts, videos, opinions, and takes I've seen on this matter, not one single person proposed a different strategy. To make matters even worse, the ID verification method seems to be incredibly easy to bypass, making it not even very effective at the job it is supposed to be performing.

The larger implications of this are absolutely worrying and is without a doubt going to negatively affect the way everyone uses the internet. The worries about it creating a mass surveillance state are not to be undermined. Collecting any personal data of yourself and storing it on a server where you yourself do not have access to it is the recipe for disaster that we see countless times year after year after year. Just this past week there were reports of a women's dating app getting hacked with thousands of ID cards and other sensitive material leaking online.

It's very hard to figure out how I truly feel about this. On one hand, it really is for the greater good. I do not want to have children born into this world with the same unfettered, uncensored access to the entire internet like I did growing up. I think I have turned out mostly okay as an adult, but I cannot argue that the stuff I was viewing online as early as 8-9 years old did not have a negative impact on my mental wellbeing. No one around that age should ever have full access to BestGore, LiveLeak, countless porn websites, 4chan, SomethingAwful, and more like I did. I chalk it up to the internet still being relatively new around that time, so the impacts it had on children weren't as well-known as they are now. Raising a child in this day and age requires so much more restraint than when I was a child growing up.

But on the other hand, this is just another bit of our privacy gone and vanished completely without us ever getting it back. There are so many dystopian thoughts about the potential impacts of this, but it's hard to see them as being purely fiction. I hate to be this way, but unfortunately in this world there is no longer a sense of real privacy. You can do all you want to try to mask your actions online, but no matter what, there is still something identifying you. This is just going to make it a lot easier for the governments that implement this rule.

yeah its the catch 22. I'm all for enforcing measures to prevent under 18s accessing porn etc, but its not the OSA.

As many people/articles point out the 2 problems are:


its not effective

kids are more savy and its flawed. use a vpn and its pointless. Right now other countries are trying to enforce it as well and it feels like a global conspiracy how they are all doing it at the same time. On top of that its too vague-wide. Things unrelated to porn are being targeted,like xbox chat and spotify, it just feels like a power grab and moving towards an authortrian enforcement. China style. Throw in the mastercard/visa influencing what we can/cannot buy and something is off.




its too intrusive... leading to Security concerns

When it comes to security its what you know, what you have and what you are. The latter is at play here and most concerning. identity fraud is a major possibility and its not the first time we've seen identification/personal information stolen and used for ill gain. Most relevant being the ashley madison scandal.

We don't need another opportunity/ threat vector to target the public. The thing is, all the company's used are foreign (ie outside of the UK) and would you really trust someone with say, a scan of your passport, drivers license or ID? What about your face? How about your credit card / banking details. Would you trust a stranger with those?

Sure they say that they encrypt all the data and its not kept, but atm we've only got their word. Its the "trust me bro, its totally true" . What if these companies had T&Cs allowing them to use your personal data for marketing? what if they also owned marketing/ai companies on the side? if not right now, what about in the future?



So what are the options?

Well, very little atm. I think its more down to parenting and implementing blocks to the main porn sites. maybe parents having the sex education discussion. I mean, its only natural i guess for children to be curious about this stuff, so i guess we might as well discuss it. But what lession do we want to teach regarding porn? Perhaps teaching healthy viewing habits and relationships and intimacy and how porn factors into it. But yeah, not sure.


At this rate, we might be going back to the analogue media. The return of Porn mags, sex shops et al. Exposure is bound to happen one day. Worse case scenario it goes dark and its mixed into an even more lawless situation.


On the flip side, maybe i'm in the minority and most adults are perfectly fine to just this to happen.
 

"Two surveys conducted before and after the rules came into place, by a research and data analysis group, suggest that a significant portion of the British populace supports the new laws, but an equally large percentage also reckon that they're not very effective."

I think when it comes down to the purest form of this argument, it boils down to the fact that people absolutely do want to keep children safe online from viewing potentially harmful content and make it a safer space in general for children, but no one seems to know any other way to implement that. No one is arguing against providing measures to protect children online, but seemingly no one has a better solution than the ID verification method.

If there was a better method to protect children online that also respects the privacy of everyone else that uses the internet, we would have already seen it happen, or at the very least there will be a strong argument for a different method that people are rallying behind. Out of the seemingly countless posts, videos, opinions, and takes I've seen on this matter, not one single person proposed a different strategy. To make matters even worse, the ID verification method seems to be incredibly easy to bypass, making it not even very effective at the job it is supposed to be performing.

The larger implications of this are absolutely worrying and is without a doubt going to negatively affect the way everyone uses the internet. The worries about it creating a mass surveillance state are not to be undermined. Collecting any personal data of yourself and storing it on a server where you yourself do not have access to it is the recipe for disaster that we see countless times year after year after year. Just this past week there were reports of a women's dating app getting hacked with thousands of ID cards and other sensitive material leaking online.

It's very hard to figure out how I truly feel about this. On one hand, it really is for the greater good. I do not want to have children born into this world with the same unfettered, uncensored access to the entire internet like I did growing up. I think I have turned out mostly okay as an adult, but I cannot argue that the stuff I was viewing online as early as 8-9 years old did not have a negative impact on my mental wellbeing. No one around that age should ever have full access to BestGore, LiveLeak, countless porn websites, 4chan, SomethingAwful, and more like I did. I chalk it up to the internet still being relatively new around that time, so the impacts it had on children weren't as well-known as they are now. Raising a child in this day and age requires so much more restraint than when I was a child growing up.

But on the other hand, this is just another bit of our privacy gone and vanished completely without us ever getting it back. There are so many dystopian thoughts about the potential impacts of this, but it's hard to see them as being purely fiction. I hate to be this way, but unfortunately in this world there is no longer a sense of real privacy. You can do all you want to try to mask your actions online, but no matter what, there is still something identifying you. This is just going to make it a lot easier for the governments that implement this rule.

I think the biggest issue is that the ID verification currently relies on third parties that are outside of the country of the person being verified. Why can't the government provide ID verification? I assume most governments already have some way of identifying someone online to, for example, allow people to file their taxes online.
And if not the government, maybe you could go through a bank. I confirmed my ID through my bank just today while ordering a new phone. It doesn't immediately leak your banking details, the only thing the bank needs to provide is a yes or no on whether someone is an adult or not.
 
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kids are more savy and its flawed. use a vpn and its pointless.
Kids are using Death Stranding and Garry's Mod to upload pictures of characters faces to bypass it. It's hilarious how ineffective it really is.
The fact that this is all happening at once is a bit of a conspiracy, but to try to quell that, they have been talking about doing this kind of stuff for at least the past year or two, especially in Texas.

its too intrusive... leading to Security concerns

When it comes to security its what you know, what you have and what you are. The latter is at play here and most concerning. identity fraud is a major possibility and its not the first time we've seen identification/personal information stolen and used for ill gain. Most relevant being the ashley madison scandal.
This is where a lot of the frustration is coming from. We already live in a world that does not respect your privacy or security for your information, this is just another large step towards our diminishing privacy and opens a huge possibility for more security related concerns.

Well, very little atm. I think its more down to parenting and implementing blocks to the main porn sites. maybe parents having the sex education discussion. I mean, its only natural i guess for children to be curious about this stuff, so i guess we might as well discuss it. But what lession do we want to teach regarding porn? Perhaps teaching healthy viewing habits and relationships and intimacy and how porn factors into it. But yeah, not sure.
I'm not a parent (yet), but I can understand how tiring it must be. Parents around my age are increasingly becoming notorious for throwing a tablet in front of a kids face so they don't need to do the actual parenting themselves all the time. People started calling them electric babysitters. A parent who uses a tablet as a way to escape from the constant job of parenting probably doesn't care too much about what their kid sees as long as they are quiet and contempt playing on the tablet. This is a major issue for so many reasons even beyond the fact that the kid has mostly open access to the internet.

Again, there just doesn't seem to be any other way. We don't have computers that have the ability to know exactly what age the current user is, we don't have a way to know that information while keeping it 100% fully private and secure. This seems like one of the only option we have, and the effects are going to be very far-reaching. All that we can hope for is that these companies and governments truly do respect our privacy and security... ah who am I kidding.
 
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I think the biggest issue is that the ID verification currently relies on third parties that are outside of the country of the person being verified. Why can't the government provide ID verification? I assume most governments already have some way of identifying someone online to, for example, allow people to file their taxes online.
And if not the government, maybe you could go through a bank. I confirmed my ID through my bank just today while ordering a new phone. It doesn't immediately leak your banking details, the only thing the bank needs to provide is a yes or no on whether someone is an adult or not.


in the UK, besides your password, driving license there is your national insurance ID, but you get that around 15-16. But i say there is just no real fool proof method someone will find a way to see adult entertainment. i mean, an older sibling allows access to his account, they steal parent or someones id to quickly scan, someone has logged in previously and they hop on. At best its just to make it slightly more difficult.


This is where a lot of the frustration is coming from. We already live in a world that does not respect your privacy or security for your information, this is just another large step towards our diminishing privacy and opens a huge possibility for more security related concerns.


we need IDs to prove we're adults (or a wanking license). i thought the best way is perhaps a universal system where its just a blank card with a QR code that has a serial number that you scan it and it confirms you're an adult. The beauty is that there are no personal details on it; just a code that references nothing and is just a code on a database. Think of it as a key to a secret society or just an ordinary key.

The challenge is obviously keeping it out of the hands of kids. Maybe only can be applied online by adults and you have to get it from the government or something. After that you're given a random card and that is used for verification.

The really silly thing is that the legal age to have sexual activity is 16. We need to be 18 to view porn or to just communicate over Xbox live. or watch youtube videos because it has swearing or serious content.

its even more stupid deciding whether its a crime for an adult who is legally able to watch porn decides to use a vpn to bypass verification. Spotify certainly thinks so. Can't prove you're 18? your account gets deleted. Are you an adult using VPNs to get around verification? according to the Uk government, you support paedophiles or condone child abuse and not because of data privacy issues. Again stupid.
 
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I love classical music in video games. Yesterday I played some Roblox with my kid and was pleasantly surprised to hear Morgenstimmung in Grow a Garden (which incidentally might very well be the most popular game at the moment, with a current concurrent user count of over 2 million and two peaks of around 20 million concurrent players in the last two weeks).
 

Zloth

Community Contributor

I hadn't finished the article or trailer before wishlisting. This looks exactly like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, just with more build options. Hopefully the release goes well.
I don't know - DMoM&M had lots of cliffs, lots of spikes on walls, and lots of campfires with really flammable enemies. I almost wishlisted, but I think I'll wait for the reviews.
 
Its obvious kids will bypass it, and the authorities probably know that. The logical step is to force everyone to show ID... guess that is sort of happening in stealth. Its not just 16 year olds who have to prove their age now.
One way I see to prove how old a user is would be age of account. Gmail for instance, if the address is over 16 years old, there is a high chance so is the user. I have had the same gmail account for 25 years now... pretty good chance I am older than 16.
Wonder how Google will do it.
 
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Its funny, it always comes down to protect the kids from riske web sites when the real problem is online and in person bullying. 40 years ago middle schoolers knew others that had acutal sex, this is nothing new and many saw vhs porn. its just a bit easier now or parents could acutally set up controlls themselves. People act like is we just removed adult videos from the world kids would be better off, but really if you want healthy kids get rid of the bullying and limit the use, including texting and those are both on parents.

I see kids walkng down the street as i pass the highshool nearly daily as its right next to the town center a mile from my place. its a good thing there are sidewalks because they cant even make it to the cross walk 100 feet away with out staring at their phone the whole way. Id say a good 70% or more are waking alone. Id bet not a single one is watching porn.

But just like blaming games violence, or e 50+ years ago tryingto outlaw comicbooks as the ruin of youth people are yet agian missing the forest.

Kids are not commiting suicide, shooting people and in dire stress because they saw an adult video, its the constant criticism and harrassment and no age verification is going to fix any of it. They are exposed to far worse just going in the steam forums.

Yes there is a tech issue but its not the one people love to talk about. i dont have the answer but i will say age verification is not going to address a single problem in todays world.
 
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I disagree that more games need a more realistic carrying system. Death Stranding works exactly because the game is built as a carrying-stuff simulator, you can't just tack a system like that on top of a RPG. Dealing with encumbrance can already be bothersome, making it more involved just means it gets in the way more if you're just trying to enjoy the rest of the game.

I don't know - DMoM&M had lots of cliffs, lots of spikes on walls, and lots of campfires with really flammable enemies. I almost wishlisted, but I think I'll wait for the reviews.

I mean, I'll definitely wait for reviews before buying, I'm not going to do something as crazy as pre-ordering.
 

Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
Don't understand the problem of carry weight in KCD that he mentions in the article because you get a horse very early on and can just transfer a lot of stuff to it. In games with an extraction theme to it (like Escape From Tarkov), I can understand there being a more deep carry weight limit around strength/stamina, because if you go looting everything it makes sense that you get punished for it - risk vs reward.

In RPG games like Oblivion or The Outer Worlds it matter less for me if there is a weight limit or not. It makes sense to have perks surrounding it, like being able to fast travel while being overburdened, but it's more of a trivial mechanic because of different ways you can just have companions mule items or chests to fill up.

It's there to act as a more realistic factor (or coding limits) which makes more sense for survival games, but for a more typical RPG it makes much less sense. Just look at the BG3 and how you have a carry limit but you can just send everything back to you camp anyways, negating it in the first place.

I liked how they did it in Metro Exodus with a carry limit on maximum 3 weapons and with scarcity of ammo on higher difficulties. You had to save bullets, but also swapping out a weapon for another one you find just to keep on surviving. It's not super hard, but it adds an extra flavor of not having a heavy arsenal of weapons like you were some Metal Gear Solid dude.
 
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Carry weight generally isn't the problem I have in most games I play, mainly as items don't have any weight, and its more a struggle to fit them into the inventory.

Different way of limiting what people can carry. Most of the ones I play have a square made up of grids to put items in, and size of the item in the grid is generally limiting factor as to how many you can carry... and how many pages of inventory you get.

Stash space is the last limit as to how much you can collect. I find I always seem to find the limit. No matter how many pages, I will fill them. Vaguely remember having 25 pages full of stuff in Sacred 2 shared stash. 16 bank characters as on character space was limited... I wonder if they fix that in remastered version.
 
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Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
Carry weight generally isn't the problem I have in most games I play, mainly as items don't have any weight, and its more a struggle to fit them into the inventory.
That reminds me of how you in Escape From Tarkov could stash a body armor inside another body armor and doing this pretty much unlimited to stack items. Or finding something like the bottomless chest/pouch in some D&D games.
 
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It's there to act as a more realistic factor (or coding limits) which makes more sense for survival games, but for a more typical RPG it makes much less sense. Just look at the BG3 and how you have a carry limit but you can just send everything back to you camp anyways, negating it in the first place.

The carry limit in Baldur's Gate 3 is mainly there because it's in the tabletop version, but the combination of a carry limit and the option to send stuff straight to camp works really well to keep inventories somewhat uncluttered. Even with just consumables in your inventory it can be a bit much, but it would be so much worse if you also had to stuff all of the vendor trash in the same UI.
 
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Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
It still bothers me how Larian never ever managed to implement an inventory system where you could change name of bags/trunks. For me it seems they just rebuilt on their old inventory UI from the Divinity games that was never good in the first place. It get's cluttered for a reason and that reason is bad UI design. It's something that I believe would be very easy to implement considering you have older games like Oblivion where you can name your own spells or even enchanted weapons!
 
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Maybe I should wait for AM6 before doing a system upgrade:ROFLMAO:

Realistically even if it came out in 2027, it would take another year or two until prices are reasonable (reasonable for the year 2028 I suppose). AM5 is going to receive official support until at least 2027, but that will most likely be extended, especially since AM4 is nearing 10 years strong.
 
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Better to wait for 2nd generation motherboards that support AM6, let all the early adapters have all the fun of Beta BIOS and weird inconsistencies.
Its what I did with AM5.

I think the next CPU are AM5 still, so as they say, still some life in AM5 for a while to come.

AMD seems to be lining up for a great renumbering
  • CPU are over 10 (obviously, mine doesn't give them any choices now)
  • Motherboards will be around X1070/B1050 area
  • GPU are also over 10 next gen

normally they don't like going past 10. Intel are the same... they got as far as 14 and restarted.
So I expect some renaming going on soon, Maybe they wait until AM6 but I doubt it.
 
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Hopefully players utilize it properly now that it’s going to the Assault class. I’m so sick of spawning at a Recon player's mobile spawn and it's the absolute furthest point in the entire map without a single vehicle in sight. I guess it's my fault because the map shows you where the spawn point is but still, it's never utilized in a way that benefits everyone. Moving it to the Assault class and positioning it as a flanking tool seems like a no-brainer.

normally they don't like going past 10. Intel are the same... they got as far as 14 and restarted.
So I expect some renaming going on soon, Maybe they wait until AM6 but I doubt it.
If the latest AI chips are anything to go by, they are reverting back to triple digit model numbers instead of quadruple number ones. Perhaps the non-AI chips will stick with the same naming scheme. And you're right about waiting for second gen mobos, alongside not being a beta tester for new technology, it's usually crazy expensive before the prices mellow out a few years into it's lifespan.
 
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Zloth

Community Contributor
Carry weight generally isn't the problem I have in most games I play, mainly as items don't have any weight, and its more a struggle to fit them into the inventory.
Tetris inventory, where you have to figure out how to fit everything! Games quickly put an auto-sort on those. I remember them being common 20 years back, but they seem pretty rare now.
Bag of holding? Pah! Portable holes are better. In our campaign back in the`80's, I had a portable warehouse! Awesome for keeping treasure without messing with those pesky castles. Or it was until I failed my save vs. a Flames of Doom spell. Then my portable warehouse failed its save.

At least we destroyed the bad guy's castle we were invading.
 

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