this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How much you wanna bet the ministers use VPN to watch porn as well?

[–] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Who needs to watch it when you can live it

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[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's just all these children with their bank accounts paying for their VPN subscriptions doing it all... Do they think we're that stupid? Don't answer that. 😔

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's the free VPNs that are the problem. They are privacy nightmares.

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If only there was some way the government could have predicted this would happen and maybe not rushed a poorly thought out law in the first place!

maybe then they would not have:

  • forced big tech companies to withdraw service to the uk
  • forced uk-based small forums and message boards to close
  • given free vpn providers tons more data to sell
  • reduced the overall cyber resilience of the country by forcing people to choose between giving photos of their passports to some weird online service or signing up for a free vpn which sells their data, may inject their own unregulated adverts etc
  • reduced uk based advertising effectiveness and thus investment and marketing spend
  • pissed everyone off while doing it, scoring yet another win for the far right

absolute roasters the lot of them

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[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think the best way to solve this is to not have kids in the first place.

[–] Rooty@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

And deprive capital of all that cheap labor? Have you no heart sir/madam?

[–] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

FYI, with Mullvad VPN set to UK, sites that require age verification:

  • pornhub.com
  • youporn.com
  • redtube.com
  • porn.com
  • bellesa.co
  • tube8.com
  • thisvid.com
  • quorno.com

Sites tha do NOT require age verification:

  • hqporner.com
  • xhamster.com
  • youjizz.com
  • alohatube.com
  • qqqporn.com
  • xnxx.com
  • xcafe.com
  • helloporn.co
  • go.porn
  • cartoonporn.pro

And xvideos.com is a bit special since it shows you the thumbnails of porn videos but won't let you play them.

But we need to stop VPNs! Think of the whole two children that have VPNs! What if instead of just going to the half of the sites that don't verify age, they figure out how to use a VPN?! Oh the humanity!

Yeah, UK wants to de-anonymize VPN users as the next step in their attack on free speech. It is laughable to think this is about anything else.

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[–] greatwhitepapertiger@lemmy.zip 40 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This has nothing to do with porn or protecting children. It's a backdoor way to attach names and faces to VPN usage so movie and music studios can sue specific people for torrenting. They failed in bringing lawsuits previously because they couldn't pin point the piracy to specific individuals. I would bet money that the ministers leading this charge have ties to groups in the movie and music industry. The UK will be the testbed before the full rollout in the EU and then worldwide.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 week ago

This is a lot bigger than the entertainment industry now. Creeping fascism and the trillion dollar surveillance capitalism industry are hellish bed buddies.

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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 39 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Everyone’s scared of Reform getting in and yet Reform are the only ones promising to reverse all this. All this is done based off the back of a 2016 survey where parents said they were worried about kids watching porn on the internet, but the survey gave no indication of what a solution would look like and gave no mention to online age verification and banning VPNs.

[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

If I had a nickle for ever time the UK did something pants-on-head stupid or short-sighted from a minor survey or public poll, [counts change jar]... How much are big macs these days?

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[–] vane@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Stop fucking but make children.

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[–] queueBenSis@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

if the strategy is to tell children to stop circumventing the rules with a workaround, couldn’t the original messaging just have been “talk to your children about not watching porn”

it’s so obvious the identification laws have nothing to do with protecting children from porn and everything to do with Big Brother surveillance

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Streisand effect: the BBC is telling every last kid that VPN is exactly the way to circumvent the prohibition.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Because the goal is to outlaw VPNs. To do that they need enough children to use VPNs to make it credible enough.

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[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Let's say they do. So people start using non UK VPNs. So you need age verification for any Internet access? For any computer or phone that could connect to the Internet?

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 42 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's what they're aiming for, yes.

They want to know where everyone is and what every person is doing at every possible moment of every day, be that in public or on the Internet. They are paranoid and know that their entire system is in danger of collapse with the common man gaining control over the rich and powerful.

Thus they resort to extreme control of the commoners to ensure that won't happen.

Child protection and anti-pornography stances are perfect excuses because they're very difficult to argue against.

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[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

and here we have the heart of the issue, and their end goal. identification required for Internet access. total control.

100% and as always they boil it down to "well even if all that other stuff is true, it's for the safety of children."

Yet we have fucking confirmation that exposing networks of wealthy and powerful pedophiles is not on the agenda. Those people are untouchable. Those people are also the ones that we are handing complete control over to.

So who tf are we really protecting children from by doing this?

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[–] isekaihero@ani.social 24 points 1 week ago

This is fascists using "think of the children" to violate everyone's online privacy and spy on everyone worldwide.

[–] laz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 week ago

Moronic bit is atlast asking parents to be responsible

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago

I remember when my step-son was a teenager. I didn't care that he watched porn. I cared that he infected the family PC with viruses and malware trying to watch porn.

[–] NGC2346@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago (5 children)

When they effectively make the internet a dangerous place, Usenet will rise from the darkness. P2P will also always exist and these politicians dont understand computer math, so a lot of what they're trying to accomplish is bound to fail.

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[–] UltraBlack@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Ok one question: Why do we have to protect children from porn if they've already gotten exposed to it?

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To add to it: Why do we need to protect children that arent ours from things their parents are supposed to protect them from?

Weird way to shift job tasks around.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It's preying on the tech illiteracy of idiots. There are several pieces of software that can be used to locally censor the internet for minors, and they're very affordable, and I bet free versions (open source?) probably also exist.

When I was a wee lad, there were "internet safety guides" being shown to kids and parents including :

  • Don't post personal information online
  • Do not use your real name on the internet
  • Do not give images of your ID to anyone online

But then, facebook asked for people's fucking IDs and real names, and people just fucking forked it over. GOOD JOB DICKHEADS.

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[–] xc2215x@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Banning Pornhub makes them use the VPNs in the first place.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 13 points 1 week ago

Almost like you didn't think this fucker through.

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