In Touch - Leaving the Macular Society, Age Verification Help
Download Leaving the Macular Society, Age Verification Help
Since the spring, we have been receiving a steady stream of emails from people who are deeply concerned about developments at the Macular Society. The concerns have primarily been over the plans to make a number of the Society's regional managers redundant. In the background, there have been events evolving based around a WhatsApp group chat, which included a number of the regional managers who were told they could be made redundant. In Touch speaks to one of the regional managers, following her dismissal from the charity over the WhatsApp group chat.
A few months ago, age verification checks became a requirement on certain websites under the Online Safety Act. The aim of the Act is to protect children and young people from content that is deemed to be harmful. But, In Touch heard from listeners that they are having issues with the accessibility of these age verification measures, and subsequently are struggling to access content they should be entitled to view as adults. Since we discussed this on the programme, we have heard from the The Age Verification Providers Association who offered to provide some advice on how people with visual impairments can navigate these systems. Their Executive Director Iain Corby gives some pointers.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Paul Holloway
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
Published on Tuesday, 23rd September 2025.
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