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VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

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Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#101

Post by crims0n »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #89

In Russia, they claimed that new measures to block websites are necessary to protect the children online. Of course, they immediately used these new capabilities to block opposition websites and sources critical of the government. Now, seeing many European governments tirelessly push for these new measures to protect the children , I'm pretty sure that the children are finally going to be safe online.

It is really disheartening to see the sentiment around privacy erode like this. Fifteen or even ten years ago this would have been unanimously and vehemently opposed, but now it is somehow up for debate?

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#102

Post by zarzavat »

inigyou wrote: post #82
netfortius wrote: post #3

There are few things more exciting, in relationship to attempting to restrict access to (data) communications, than a government which thinks geeks won't find ways around such. Now sit back, relax, and let's wait for the next generation of encrypted channels solution development.

They know they'll find workarounds, they'll just arrest whoever is involved in the workarounds. Law isn't a computer firewall, it's a loaded weapon.

The beauty of VPNs is that you do not need to have a presence in the UK to make or sell one. And there's a huge amount of money in it.

The law is very bad at dealing with such realities, see also piracy and drugs. The last time I checked TPB is still accessible in the UK with only DoH.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#103

Post by maipen »

dgellow wrote: post #59
farbklang wrote: post #7

At least we get to raise the next generation of IT geeks because they'll have to understand a bunch of networking basics to watch porn, and might get hooked on it. (on IT)

Or they will ask their AI to do that for them, learn very little about the networking stack in the process

Unless AI detects their prompt is from UK and they reply: Sorry I am not allowed to do that.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#104

Post by dryarzeg »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #89

In Russia, they claimed that new measures to block websites are necessary to protect the children online. Of course, they immediately used these new capabilities to block opposition websites and sources critical of the government. Now, seeing many European governments tirelessly push for these new measures to protect the children , I'm pretty sure that the children are finally going to be safe online.

The only (probably) good thing here is that one can at least try to apply Russian experience at circumventing the censorship, where it's currently way more severe, up to the point when entire companies have their workflows disrupted because remote workers can't connect through the VPN (which is blocked). Maybe that will help.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#105

Post by big85 »

zrn900 wrote: post #91

The article below sharply summarizes why all this is a dystopian surveillance setup: > how, precisely, do you stop a fourteen-year-old from opening Instagram without first checking the age of the forty-year-old? > You don’t. You can’t. So everyone gets carded. Britain is lifting the system wholesale from Australia, where a computer first scans your face and guesses your age from your cheekbones, then, failing that, s…

> You don’t. You can’t. So everyone gets carded.

Exactly. A little at a time. First it's adult sites, because if you need to show ID to buy alcohol, shouldn't you need ID to buy pornography? Once that's accepted, expand the sphere of control to non-adult sites too by redefining everything as 16+.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#106

Post by nickdothutton »

embedding-shape wrote: post #22
kouteiheika wrote: post #5

> the main thing that we've done is we've commissioned additional research on this because I've not been happy with the evidence. Ah, yes, the existing research doesn't agree with our biases, so let's fund new "research" that does.

Full context: > Ms Kendall told Nick Ferrari: “I told MPs yesterday I'm going to come back to the House with a statement on the issue of VPNs in July. There are very strong views on both sides of this. For some people, it is about privacy, and it is the ability to use that is really held strongly by people. And for others, they say they should be banned because kids are using them to get around. And so I— the main th…

"I want to do the thing that gets me the most votes and carries the least political risk". Note this is not necessarily the wisest thing, or even the thing that objectively solves or mitigates the problem the most. Many such cases...

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#107

Post by Levitz »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #67
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conspiracy theory^ This is happening worldwide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_age_verification_laws_b...

The fact that it's coordinated in all "Western" countries show it's a real conspiracy, not just a theory.

If your argument is that a group is conspiring to establish policy in a country, the idea that it's happening in many, many countries means the threshold for evidence is now much higher, since the group should be able to have much more control.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#108

Post by hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm »

Levitz wrote: post #107
iLoveOncall wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it's coordinated in all "Western" countries show it's a real conspiracy, not just a theory.

If your argument is that a group is conspiring to establish policy in a country, the idea that it's happening in many, many countries means the threshold for evidence is now much higher, since the group should be able to have much more control.

This is the logical conclusion but there is currently a mass wave of Meta grunts downvoting.

Apparently if countries all put an age limit on tobacco it must mean there is a secret group coordinating for it for ulterior reasons.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#109

Post by bjackman »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #69
nly wrote: post #45

I've been using a VPN in the UK on my laptop and phone exclusively for 20 years, and the state has been working with ISPs to make "connection records" for most of that time. On mobile a VPN isn't always effective in avoid geoblocks. Some apps are able to determine I'm in the UK and still ask for ID - reddit is one for example, if you stumble on to an adult subreddit. Using the web interface avoids this. The UK has al…

> On mobile VPN isn't always effective in avoid geoblocks. Some apps are able to determine I'm in the UK and still ask for ID - reddit is one for example, if you stumble on to an adult subreddit. I've never had this issue (using Private Internet Access on iOS).

I'm a Brit living abroad, when I visit the UK I use a Tailscale network with an exit node at my home, and yeah this always seems to work for me.

Going the other way around to try and watch British TV I used to find with a normal hosted VPN services could still figure out I wasn't in the country, but now I have a Tailscale exit node at my mum's place in the UK it always works fine.

So I suspect it all comes down to the IP source, probably a residential IP is the best possible case and with commercial VPNs it depends on how hard they work on isolating their IP blocks from known datacentres.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#110

Post by ajb »

In a way, the cack-handed way they've gone about this makes me slightly more optimistic. If we must have such a law, please let it be one which:

* Creates a market for privacy tech of several million teenagers

* Wastes police time chasing down social forums which kids are hosting abroad using their pocket money

* Rubs the noses of the securirati in the fact that they've made it easier for terrorists to hide their comms among the thousands of teenage speakeasies

This is not the 80's when comms tech required capital and man-years of engineering. Setting up forums online isn't even a high-school project.

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