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• C Ctrl-Alt-Speech Ctrl-Alt-Speech remote Jul 31, 2026, 1:12 PM You are here

  The UK Wants Us To Ask Your Age Before You Listen

  In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

  • a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise (404 Media)
  • Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People (404 Media)
  • Ofcom head says age checks are ‘really big moment’ for children’s online safety (The Guardian)
  • New online safety rules not 'the end of the conversation', says minister (BBC)
  • Commission’s guidelines for online child safety target platforms of all sizes (Euractiv)
  • I met the sextortion scammers destroying young lives for £1 a day (The Times)
  • “Why me?” On shame, self-blame, and feeling so. damn. Stupid. (Blockparty)
  • If It Breaks Wikipedia, It’s Probably Bad Policy (InternetExchange)

  This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund and by our sponsor, the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. In our bonus chat Mike talks with DTSP Executive Director David Sullivan to talk about their new Safe Framework Specification, which is an official ISO standard (available for free download) which will help everyone better understand best practices and concepts around online trust & safety work.

  Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).