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As of July 25, porn sites are required to implement effective age verification methods for U.K. users.

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It was well intentioned but a U.K. law mandating age verification on adult sites and a number of other platforms has sparked a backlash from both internet users in the country, and U.S. politicians and tech giants.

Last month, new provisions in the Online Safety Act requiring large online platforms to implement age checks to prevent children from accessing pornographic and appropriate material came into force.

The measures have led PornHub, RedTube and other porn sites to force U.K. visitors to sign up and verify their age to gain access to their services.

What is the Online Safety Act?

Broadly, the Online Safety Act is a law that imposes a duty of care on social media firms and other user-generated content sites to ensure they take responsibility for harmful content uploaded and spread on their platforms.

In particular, the legislation aims to prevent children from being exposed to pornographic content and material that promotes suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or abusive and hateful behaviour.

The regulation has been years in the making and faced numerous delays in its development — not least due to concerns that it may infringe internet users’ right to privacy and result in censorship.

Why has it led to backlash?

The latest measures have been imposed with the aim of ensuring children aren’t able to view harmful and inappropriate content.

However, they have led to complaints from internet users due to the requirement of having to share personal information such as their ID, credit card details and selfies — in some cases for platforms that don’t even qualify as porn sites.

Spotify, Reddit, X and a number of other platforms have introduced their own respective age verification systems to stop users under the age of 18 from consuming explicit content.

These moves have subsequently led to providers of virtual private networks (VPNs) to report that their services, which allow users to mask their location, are surging in the U.K.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Wikipedia was dealt a legal blow in the U.K. as a High Court judge ruled the platform should be treated as a “category one” service, which would subject to certain user verification requirements.

The Online Safety Act requires category one platforms to offer users the ability to verify their identity and access tools that reduce their exposure to content from non-verified users.

Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia, has said previously that it could limit visitor numbers from the U.K. in order to exempt it from category one status.

U.S. politicians weigh in

A number of U.S. politicians have blasted the new rules in recent days. Last week, Vice President JD Vance — who has previously criticized the U.K.’s internet safety rules — again raised concerns with the law, fearing it could unfairly restrict American tech companies.

“I just don’t want other countries to follow us down what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration,” Vance told reporters during a trip to the country last week.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who also visited the U.K. recently, said in a statement after his return that sweeping online safety laws in Europe are having “a serious chilling effect on free expression and threaten the First Amendment rights of American citizens and companies.”

There has been speculation over whether the U.S. may press Britain to relax the regulations during trade talks — however, U.K. officials say the issue is not open to debate.

Could other countries follow suit?

Other countries are already adopting their own respective internet age verification laws.

Australia and Ireland have both passed similar age verification measures, while Denmark, Greece, Spain, France and Italy have started testing a common age verification app to protect users online.

In the U.S., Louisiana passed a law in 2022 requiring age verification on websites where at least a third of the content is of an adult nature, while several other states are seeking to pass similar legislation.

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Apple Watch getting redesigned blood oxygen feature following legal dispute

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Apple Watch getting redesigned blood oxygen feature following legal dispute

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, US, on Monday, June 9, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple on Thursday announced a redesigned blood oxygen feature for some Apple Watch users, following a years-long intellectual property dispute over the capability.

Apple said the redesigned feature is coming to some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users on Thursday. The update was possible because of a recent U.S. Customs ruling, the company said.

In 2023, the International Trade Commission found that Apple’s blood oxygen sensors infringed on intellectual property from Masimo, a medical technology company. Apple paused the sale of some of its watches and began selling modified versions of the wearables without the blood oxygen feature.

“Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features that are grounded in science and have privacy at the core,” the company said in a release announcing the feature rollout.

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Bitcoin touches record, ether almost makes new high before rolling over

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Bitcoin touches record, ether almost makes new high before rolling over

Ether and bitcoin.

Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images

Bitcoin hit a new record late Wednesday as ether climbed even closer to its all-time high.

The flagship cryptocurrency rose as high as $124,496, surpassing its July record of 123,193.63, according to Coin Metrics. Ether rose to $4,791.19 overnight, edging closer to its 2021 record of $4,866.01.

Both coins took a hit Thursday, however, after July’s wholesale inflation data came in much hotter than expected. Bitcoin was lower by 3% at $118,481.00 while ether fell 2% to $4,629.20.

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Bitcoin hit a new record overnight, surpassing its July all-time high

The initial gains were sparked by Tuesday’s cooler-than-expected July inflation report, which had lifted investor optimism for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve at the end of its September policy meeting. The coins rallied with the stock market for two days. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also scaled new records.

For the week, bitcoin is on pace for a nearly 2% gain, while ether has rallied more than 14%. Ether flipped bitcoin as the crypto market leader in June, gaining 85% since then thanks to heavy institutional buying, tightening supply and adoption from corporate accumulators – all under the backdrop of a friendlier regulatory environment for the crypto industry. Jake Kennis, analyst at Nansen, said the rally likely has more room to run given the flows remain strong.

“Bitcoin hitting a fresh all time high and ETH being on the verge of doing so means we’ve moved from speculative mania to a phase where institutional adoption, real-world integration, and global liquidity are driving price discovery,” said Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto research and trading platform DYOR.

“The fact that both assets are on the verge of breaking records in tandem signals broad market conviction, not just a single-asset rally,” he added. “Momentum this strong rarely burns out instantly, but it also tends to draw in latecomers who can fuel volatility. Right now the story is less about euphoria and more about validation. Crypto is graduating from ‘alternative’ to ‘essential’ in the global portfolio mix.”

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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AI demand boosts iPhone maker Foxconn’s second-quarter profit by 27%, beating forecasts

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AI demand boosts iPhone maker Foxconn's second-quarter profit by 27%, beating forecasts

Foxconn Hon Hai Technology Group signage during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, reported Thursday that its second-quarter operating profit rose 27% year over year, on the strength of its growing artificial intelligence server business.

Here’s how Foxconn did in the second quarter of 2025 compared with LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

  • Revenue: 1.79 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($59.73 billion) vs. NT$1.79 trillion
  • Operating profit: NT$56.596 billion vs. NT$49.767 billion

Second quarter revenue grew 16% from last year, coming in line with LSEG’s SmartEstimates. The company’s net profit for the second quarter came in at NT$44.36 billion, beating expectations of NT$38.81 billion.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world’s largest manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones, and has been looking to replicate its success in consumer electronics in the world of AI.

The firm manufactures server racks designed for AI workloads and has become a key partner to American AI chip darling Nvidia.

Sales of Foxconn’s server products made up the lion’s share of revenues in the second quarter at 41%, surpassing its smart consumer electronic products for the first time, which accounted for 35%.

In an earnings report, the company forecasted that its AI server business would continue to drive growth into the current quarter, with revenue expected to increase by over 170% year over year.

Foxconn said earlier this month that it expected overall revenue to grow further in the third quarter, but noted that the impact of “evolving global political and economic conditions” would be closely monitored.

At the end of July, Foxconn announced that it was taking a stake in industrial motor maker TECO Electric & Machinery in a strategic partnership to build more AI data centers.

The company has also shown its willingness to expand into new areas, including the assembly of electric vehicles and the manufacturing of semiconductors.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariffs could impact Foxconn’s outlook this year. In response to Trump’s tariff threats, the company has already moved most of its final production of made-for-the-U.S. iPhones to India.

Taiwan has been hit with a 20% “temporary tariff” from the U.S., with trade negotiations said to be ongoing.

Last week, Trump also said he would impose a 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, but not on companies that are “building in the United States.”

While the details of these tariffs remain unclear, Foxconn Technology Co, a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry, announced plans to invest $1 billion in the U.S. over the next ten years as part of its North American expansion strategy, according to local media reports.

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