Here’s some good news, and some bad news.
The good news is that on May 1st, The Bathroom website will turn eighteen- yes, eighteen! That means we are adult enough to access ourselves (!).
We’ve come a long way from our early Flash-powered days back in 2001 to our now WordPress-maintained website. We’ve linked to numbers of fetish websites, many of whom we’ve known since we first went online.
The bad news is that we may not be online for much longer. From July 15th, new laws in the United Kingdom will require website owners to verify if their visitors are over the age of consent, for example, asking them to upload their identities to prove their age (driving licence, passport, or credit or debit cards), or by going to a newsagent to get a pass only available to adults. Websites which don’t comply would either face heavy fines or seeing them blocked by internet service providers and mobile phone networks.
As a small website, without proper information from the government, we face the prospect of either being taken offline temporarily, or in a worst case scenario, being forced to close down altogether. It wouldn’t be just adult websites that may be blocked. News websites which may contain some sensitive material, or health websites which feature naked bodies could also be blocked. Where do we draw the line?
For the record, UK-based websites will still be accessible in the rest of the world without these restrictions.
For more information, read this blogpost if you haven’t already, search “UK porn block” or similar on the web, or watch these videos below.
The first is from TLDR News.
The second is from Wired magazine (UK edition).