I can only answer for dbzer0/anarchist.nexus but FUCK NO. We ain't gonna do that shit lol. If we ever have trouble with the law in any country, we can always backup and move.

Compliance depends on the instance. Pick an instance where the admin doesn’t give a dingo’s kidney, or an instance located in a country where the local law doesn’t require age verification.

Will Lemmy instances be forced to verify users' ages identities?

If they're located in the UK, sure. But given how small Lemmy instances are, I assume they'll fly under the radar.

Non-UK instances won't be forced to do anything. The UK can't do shit outside their borders, so as long as the instance's operator doesn't set foot into the country, all they can do is block the instance in the UK.

In the UK the law is largely unenforceable. VPN usage has shot up since it came in and there was a reveal the houses of parliament are exempt from the requirement.

The internet safety law is impacting larger companies that profit from adult content such as red GIFs and pornhub.

Facebook hasn't been called out yet despite the very obvious adult content in their reels.

Smaller sites are flying under the radar for now. Lemmy probably due to it's distributed nature.

Lemmy.zip is UK based and ended up blocking anyone from the UK from visiting the site 🤷

I really don't see that happening. The internet and the real people that build it tend to be innovative tinkerers and hackers. Things get built because there's a need and someone tries to say they can't. P2P, darknets, proxies, VPNs, heck the whole concept of the fediverse defies the idea of control by an external entity. So they may try, but the chances are slim it works.

My instance just blocked UK users. Je suis francais maintenant, mate.

From my end as a tiny instance with virtually no users I'm watching how enforcement goes on small systems like these.

If they start sending warnings I'll just make browsing content required an account and close sign ups.

I've already gone through and ensured none of the communities carried has the NSFW tag. But that's not really much in terms of protection.

If they start getting around to us I think it'll mean fediverse users in the UK will either need to run their own instance or use a vpn. No way hobbyists can contract age verification.

I don't think I'll block any, but then I only have a few friends using my instance.

I'm in the odd boat that my server in in Australia (for the AU laws), but I call it a NZ instance - where I live

No, just like they don't give a fuck about your privacy either. If any instance does get big enough then yeah it's fucked.