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

birminghammail.co.uk

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

#241

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

ekianjo wrote: post #143
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 would be great if they cared as much about the safety of kids in the streets

> it would be great if they cared as much about the safety of kids in the streets

car culture This isn't a cynically curated viewpoint. It's some* of what we have and what that cost.

* we also have trespassing culture & stranger-danger culture. we ruined roaming and the childhood development it nurtured.

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

#242

Post by Symbiote »

mjhay wrote: post #182
oliwarner wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The onus is you to show it makes children safer - you’re the one advocating these privacy-harming rules.

If you insist on that approach, then for the sake of argument, you could pretend the discussion is about Australia which already has a similar law.

You could argue the benefit to children in repealing it.

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

#243

Post by b800h »

foldr wrote: post #239
b800h wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't an axis from freedom to control, with the country sitting at an identifiable point. All of these things are happening, antagonistically, at the same time. Right wing people set up a television station, government cracks down on the internet, courts protect people's rights to express philosophical beliefs, police record "non-crime hate incidents" for things written online. It's all chaotic.

But there’s no evidence that the UK government is going to disproportionately censor right wing parties on the internet either. It’s just a false analysis to link this possible age gating of VPNs with censorship of the political right.

Banning under 16s from social media is de-facto censorship of political views outside of those promulgated by mainstream media, and as the mainstream media in this country tends to be urban-liberal in orientation, this will have an effect. Perhaps the people who set up GB News were prescient to do so.

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

#247

Post by downrightmike »

FerretFred wrote: post #230
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?

They've somehow managed to breed several generations who's only criteria for "computing" is "it just works". All consumption, little-to-no understanding of how stuff works. As long as it does what it does, and it's "free", that's all that matters.

More like the dumb people keep breeding and the magic rocks keep showing pretty colors

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

#248

Post by nbevans »

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.

That's already happening in the UK too.

Shortly after the Online Safety Act went into operation, there was politically charged/sensitive/opinionated content on X mysteriously disappearing for UK users but nobody else in the world.

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

#249

Post by Fredkin »

specproc wrote: post #24

Just moved back to the UK after many years away, and it's creepy here. Doing the elderly under terror legislation, some crazy kangaroo court antics, a frankly sinister approach to "online safety". VPNs? The even more concerning thing is that we've got a far right party that have been leading in the polls for most of the last year. This is a very dangerous situation.

Where is the evidence for that? Though I grant they may get into power and suddenly change their mind, at the moment those parties are against digital dystopia, most likely because the centrist parties are most interested in using those tools to silence criticism of current immigration policy and other failings.

-Reform UK vows to repeal ‘borderline dystopian’ Online Safety Act https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/28/reform-uk-v...

"Block the Introduction of Digital ID." "Repeal the Online Safety Act." https://www.restorebritain.org.uk/restore_civil_liberties

And the left are also being surveilled and censored, e.g pro-palestine / anti-war / anti-capitalist groups, though the strategy used there is less censorship and more often bogging those groups down with infighting about identity issues. What seems more dangerous is letting the increasingly tyrannical centrist establishment, dead set on stagnation and "managed decline", give legitimacy to censorship tools (which will be available to future extreme governments!) rather than fixing things properly.

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

#250

Post by Scaled »

oliwarner wrote: post #168
pjc50 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Facial modeling has been good enough for porn. I'd be surprised if the law requires much beyond a vague best effort from service providers, but many already block connections from known server hosts and some even VPNs. An airtight block is not what's required; stopping social media being mainstream for kids is.

Lol, no. Face scans are being bypassed using video games. Meanwhile the data has shown 90%+ porn users are unwilling to do them and switch sites instead (citation: https://pornbiz.com/post/17/the_scam_of_age_verification ). The whole thing has been a complete fiasco in porn.
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