Japan protects children online very differently to the UK. (Shout out to red rose for the heads up - it was interesting.) While the UK Online Safety Act is driving biometric age verification and platform-based ID checks, Japan has taken another route: mobile carrier filtering enabled by default for under-18s, combined with parental control and digital literacy.
There is no nationwide social media ban in Japan. Instead, age controls typically sit at the telecom/SIM registration layer rather than at individual platforms.
In this video I explain:
ā¢ Japanās 2008 Youth Internet Environment framework
ā¢ How mobile carriers determine age at SIM registration
ā¢ Why filtering is enabled by default for minors
ā¢ The parental opt-out (waiver) mechanism
ā¢ The privacy trade-offs compared to UK-style age verification
This isnāt āno regulationā ā itās a different regulatory architecture.
Sources:
Nippon.com ā Overview of Japanās youth internet law and filtering model
www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d01099/
Children and Families Agency (Japan) ā Sixth Basic Plan outline (youth internet measures)
www.cfa.go.jp/assets/contents/node/basic_page/fielā¦
NTT Docomo ā āRequest for Not Using Filtering Servicesā (waiver form example)
www.docomo.ne.jp/english/binary/pdf/support/procedā¦
The Japan Times ā Commentary on social media regulation debate
www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/11/28/japan/sā¦
The Japan Times ā Reporting on youth victims and social media concerns
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/27/japan/crime-lā¦
If youāre following UK Online Safety Act developments, this comparison shows that āprotecting children onlineā does not automatically require biometric ID checks across platforms ā but every model comes with trade-offs.
Let me know in the comments: would you prefer telecom-level filtering, or platform-based age verificatio
I really donāt like how the āprotect the childrenā excuse every neo fascist government is touting to sell their wet dreams of tracking everyone 24/7, still gets debated like it has any validity. Kudos to Japan for having seemingly working child protection laws, but this just doesnāt have any relevance to the surveillance machine thatās currently being built around us. Itās coming even if every child disappeared today. Iād rather see more active discussions around what the next steps are, alternatives to the current web and guides how to set them up for example.
Sometimes it seems like it is less āprotect the childrenā as it is ākeep the children unsullied for the pedophile overlordsā that is just being packaged as āprotect the children.ā It also seems like the aspiring overlord class wants to track all of the desired slave class to reduce the chances of guillotines. But a lot of how itās allowed to take hold (in the west, at least) is because of the Abrahamic cult programming so many people still get while theyāre too young to look at it critically.
I recognize I come across as a raving conspiracy nut. Perhaps more sedately, I would phrase it this way: the use of heavily hierarchical mythology in early childhood installs belief systems that make the population much more likely to be eager to live within hierarchical social environments that serve the agendas of those best positioned to run, control, and benefit from a hierarchical world. And the mythology positions an unsullied, pure child as highly valued, making both āprotect the childrenā effective, and making āviolate the unsullied to prove your powerā desirable goals and easy manipulations.
Either way, any long-term solution is more likely to come from eliminating that hierarchical mythology before critical thinking is developed than any kind of universal ID, or the ridiculous OS level age API California is trying to force into play.
Sorry for the rant.
Somehow everyone has forgotten about parental controls that have been apart of consumer grade home routers for years.
Parental controls are there specifically to help parents. These settings allow a parent to block everything online only allowing access to approved lists of websites, generaly done through a whitelist or approved websites.
What is missing at a government level is a ācuration effortā of websites, similar to Libraries that classify books by genres and appropriate age levels.
I would propose a government fund where Librarians or similar organizations can start this effort, and make these lists easily accessible within routers for non tech individuals, together with local initiatives and programs for parents that have a interest to learn more.
For power users lists like these already exists curated by public individuals very similar to pihole block lists and whitelists.
This concept would be the most privacy respectful IMO giving parents the most power to parent, while respecting everyone elseās privacy online including children.
But somehow we all know this is not about āprotecting the childrenā, but really about mass surveillance for the public at all age groups, and yet this topic keeps coming up.
But even getting to the login prompt of your router is already like hollywood āhackingā to most people.
I love the digital library idea. Sadly, given the state of the US we would see folks on the street going
āThe govs online libraries make kids want to be transā or something like that.
There numerous solutions to addressing child safety online that do not violate personal privacy. This is one example, there are others. Solving the problem when you want to address this specific problem isnāt difficult. But the reality is that all of these measures being pushed are not meant to provide real safety to children, but rather to be able to de-anonymize the internet, so governments can better identify ādissentersā (i.e. people who criticize Israel) and provide higher quality information to AI and online marketing firms.
This doesnāt mean Japan is a good place to live in btw.
Fair. As a halfbreed myself I can say itās awful if you are not Japanese.
They do have some really kickass laws though.
What are some highlights?
Probably the classics.
Laws enforcing how public transit is provided. They literally kept a station open for a single high school student.
Public health is top notch, it goes above and beyond for patients, be they citizens or not.
While suicide is high in Japan, itās considered a public policy and social failure than a personal one so the government dumps money into improving suicide help.
Waste sorting and just general cleanliness.
Waste sorting
Everything is burnable at the right temperatureā¦
But Japan really needs to focus on producing less waste.
Iām 0% Japanese and can say that so far, aside from some annoying paperwork, itās a bliss compared to the countries I used to live in before. Maybe the difference is that I didnāt expect people to truly love me behind their smiles and politeness. Just being friendly (as it is in 99% of cases here for me) is enough, and way above my experience in Europe when people jumped to being rude and sometimes hostile right after hearing my accent after trying to speak local language.
If it relies on SIM cards that means it doesnāt work at all with regular computers or when the device connects over WiFi, right? Seems kinda useless.
Of course, all age verification checks on the Internet are useless regardless but this Japanese method seems extra useless.
Yes, but controls on local WiFi networks does nothing if they use a SIM to bypass it. So both are needed. And then that doesnāt take into account public networks, so controls are needed there. Itās a layered approach.
Itās carrier level. Your isp could do the same with off the shelf decryption appliances. Basically you decrypt the traffic and block traffic that isnāt decrypted.
Fuck that
Are there any better countries we could use as examples in the future other than one where child porn and beastiality are still legal?
Not really. The US has legal slavery among other things, many EU states have age of consent laws you shouldnāt look up, and so on.
Engage the argument instead IMO.
Ah yes, the US and EU, the only countries in the world. Well, Iām going to have to pass on accepting an impromptu debate invite from a random reply guy. Keep looking up to the OG Asian Israel if you like. Their present is in fact your nationās future. I hope you enjoy!
