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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'

#151

Post by malfist »

dryarzeg wrote: post #126
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see, the problem is that all exit points of our VPNs are in Europe. These too can be banned quite easily. Where to will we run next, given that this cancer tends to spread?

Change the protocols, I guess? Move to some kind of self-hosted or community-run infrastructure? Because to block all of that (EDIT: to block that reliably, I mean), you will have to block the entire EU network sector, and we're likely not in "V for Vendetta" or full-blown 1984 scenario for this to be possible.

Literally, tor.

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

#152

Post by subscribed »

baranul wrote: post #99
Retr0id wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is there to research? Yes, VPNs can be used to circumvent geofences (and by extension, regional age restrictions). Yes, attempting to age-restrict VPNs is at odds with strong privacy guarantees. Privacy is a human right, and one which is essential for effective democracy.

But that's the point, circumvent democracy, to set the stage for techno-fascism. The citizen has no rights which the state is bound to respect.

By all means.

For example the vast majority of the UK residents is against the ongoing support and complicity of the UK in the genocide of Palestinians, to which the government orchestrated the whole operation to turn the protest into act of terrorism (!).

Etc.

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

#153

Post by subscribed »

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote: post #50
varispeed wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously Labour has been "lobbied" and now have to deliver this for whoever wants this. It's pathetic how they use sobbing families to push it through, similar tactic like before Iraq invasion. same players behind the scenes.

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

What you linked is the evidence of the conspiracy, no need to turn it the other way round.

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

#154

Post by oliwarner »

sylos wrote: post #142
oliwarner wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media got worse. We've had time to witness the damage of a dopamine-doomscroll. I personally know children who've posted too much, and children who've been solicited directly by adults, both to try and meet and for nudes. And we've seen the complete lack of positive action from platforms. Roblox is full of paedophiles and Grok was letting you nudify your classmates just a few months ago. These places aren't su…

Maybe they should get the pedos out of the government instead of a foolish attempt at restricting and harming everyone else? It's not ever going to protect or make children safer. It never was.

Why doesn't it make children safer?

I'm trying to discuss this in good faith but that wasn't even an argument. A bland accusation wearing a tin foil hat.

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

#155

Post by dryarzeg »

malfist wrote: post #151
dryarzeg wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change the protocols, I guess? Move to some kind of self-hosted or community-run infrastructure? Because to block all of that (EDIT: to block that reliably, I mean), you will have to block the entire EU network sector, and we're likely not in "V for Vendetta" or full-blown 1984 scenario for this to be possible.

Literally, tor.

Which will get blocked and go down, like, in no time. That's literally what happened in Russia - Tor is mostly unusable, you can't even bootstrap properly without some "tricks", so to speak.

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

#156

Post by subscribed »

stranded22 wrote: post #81
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.

Reminds me of the drugs tsar, Dr Nutt, saying that drugs should be legalised/decriminalised. So he got sacked. Quite often, people in power don’t want to hear the truth, they want to hear their own words/views parroted back to them.

To put it into perspective he was asked to do the harm review, in which he proved how much more harmful the legal drugs (alcohol and nicotine) are from some of the banned ones (namely cannabis, LSD or Psylocibin).

Famously at the exact same time UK was claiming there was no evidence of the medicinal use of the cannabis, the UK was also the biggest exporter of it, and all was then turned into Sativex, a cannabis based medicine, not approved for use in the UK of course (individual import is allowed).

Interesting is that the husband of one of the very prominent Home Secretary and later Prime Minister is a senior executive in the producet.

Of course there's no suggestion of the financial interest of them in keeping a monopoly. See also: https://leftfootforward.org/2021/04/revealed-uk-is-the-world...

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

#157

Post by Hizonner »

oliwarner wrote: post #135
crims0n wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Social media got worse. We've had time to witness the damage of a dopamine-doomscroll. I personally know children who've posted too much, and children who've been solicited directly by adults, both to try and meet and for nudes. And we've seen the complete lack of positive action from platforms. Roblox is full of paedophiles and Grok was letting you nudify your classmates just a few months ago. These places aren't su…

> Social media got worse.

Sure, whatever. Maybe in some ways.

> I personally know children who've posted too much, and children who've been solicited directly by adults, both to try and meet and for nudes.

... but not in that way.

I personally knew children who'd been solicited directly by adults before there was even an Internet. Including me, if you use the definition of "child" that seems to be popular in this sort of debate (and, by the way, it wasn't a big deal).

We did not shut down the world because of it.

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

#158

Post by pjc50 »

oliwarner wrote: post #135
crims0n wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Social media got worse. We've had time to witness the damage of a dopamine-doomscroll. I personally know children who've posted too much, and children who've been solicited directly by adults, both to try and meet and for nudes. And we've seen the complete lack of positive action from platforms. Roblox is full of paedophiles and Grok was letting you nudify your classmates just a few months ago. These places aren't su…

Requiring ID (which is what age gating is) for VPNs is absurd. Given that SSH can act as a proxy service, are you going to require all ssh connections out of the country to be age verified?

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

#159

Post by subscribed »

collabs wrote: post #19
ranger_danger wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these big companies need to self police It's not possible to prevent a person (of any age) from reaching a specific website if they are determined enough. Full stop.

> It's not possible to prevent a person (of any age) from reaching a specific website if they are determined enough. Full stop. right, and that reveals the absurdity of this "age gate", doesn't it? because I am sure giving every UK national their very own unicorn would also poll very well but that doesn't mean that's what a functional democracy should be prioritizing just because a majority of the public supports bec…

That's because it's not about age gating, it's about identifying the internet users.

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

#160

Post by drnick1 »

ekianjo wrote: post #149
yokoprime wrote: post #132

This will be interesting to follow. I dont see how this can be fully enforced. Maybe for iOS and other platform where app distribution is highly restricted, but on linux, windows and even macOS i can use mullvad, sending cash in an envelope without ever revealing my identity.

they can forbid mullvad.

How would that work? The UK can presumably ban Mullvad from operating in the UK, but I don't see how it can prevent outbound connections to Mullvad servers elsewhere, short of implementing a nation-wide firewall like China or Iran. And even in those places the firewall is pourous and routinely circumvented.
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