PHILIP LEITH
I was recently travelling in the UK and, after a lot of sightseeing on foot, decided to order a taxi to go back to my hotel.
I searched the internet for a local taxi firm and found one with relative ease. I called the number and went through an automated process which worked well. I managed to book a taxi quickly. The computer-generated voice told me that my taxi was on its way. I was sent a link so that I could monitor the progress of my taxi. The message also said that I would know the taxi driver’s name and the type of vehicle and registration number that was on its way.
When I clicked on the link I was forwarded to this:
I can’t understand why anyone would consider a link to show you the progress of a taxi that you have ordered to be age-inappropriate content.
I can only assume that it is to do with the recent Online Safety Act, although coincidentally I had recently changed mobile providers, so it might purely have been that the mobile provider that I’d switched to had a different standard as to what was considered adult content. I doubt this on the basis that the company I moved to, Talkmobile, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company I had used previously, Vodafone, and, as you can see, the block was from Vodafone.
Whoever has decided that this link contains age-restricted content hasn’t necessarily thought this through. Consider the scenario where a 17 year-old girl can’t get hold of her parents and it’s too far away or she does not want to walk home, so she orders a taxi through a reputable taxi service. A link is sent to her so she can see the progress of the taxi that she has ordered. Of course, she can’t open it because it’s considered age-inappropriate and, being only 17, she’s not in a position to prove that she’s over 18 and thus get the link to the taxi.
Thankfully it’s rare, but we do know that there are predators out there who will look for people who are vulnerable, and it’s not difficult to spot someone who’s waiting for somebody to pick them up or waiting for a taxi, because every time a car approaches the person will look up from whatever they’re doing to see if it’s the car that’s picking them up. All it would take would be for a predator to be around at that time, pull the window down and say, “Did you call for a taxi?” and, of course, because she’s just ordered one, she believes this is her taxi, so she gets in, perhaps never to be seen again — all because some moron has decided that a link to follow the progress of a taxi is something you’re not allowed to see if you’re under the age of 18.
How many other innocuous things have been blocked because of this Online Safety Act, and by doing so, are children really any safer?
Stop Press: If you’ve been unable to access something on the web because it’s age-restricted – and obviously shouldn’t be – please email us at [email protected] to let us know. If we get enough examples, we will run another piece about it.
This article (Age-Restricted Taxi Tracking? The Absurd Consequences of the Online Safety Act) was created and published by The Daily Sceptic and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Philip Leith
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