Age verification laws are just an excuse to kill anonymity on the internet.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Is this actually possible to enforce? To stay with the example of Mullvad, you could still send an envelope full of cash over to Sweden to add time to your account (or create a new one).
This was always the logic next step to these campaigns. Sighhhh
When do we just start killing politicians?
46 years ago. Start with Reagan.
maybe if hinckley wasn't a complete failure
Jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on in the UK and the rest of Europe right now with this age verification nanny state shit?
If I ran a website that would be subject to these new regulations, do you know what I would do? I'd fucking IP ban all of the United Kingdom, not comply in advance with this fascist horseshit.
If there's one silver lining about this digital insanity going on right now, it's that governments and corporations are essentially forcing users underground, and the dark web (unindexed websites) has the potential to grow and thrive as a result. We might have an opportunity to take the internet back from those who are trying to tighten their grip around the free and unfettered flow of information.
Would Mullvad even legally need to comply with UK laws if they don't have a server in the UK? Maybe they could allow UK user but just not operate out of UK?
newspapers owned by foreign billionaires and shitty childrens authors that give epstein tickets to her play for children
Did not know that latter bit! Not like she's enjoyed any positive sentiment from me for a long ass time, but damn! Gross!
The deepstate is real. Its Right here cumming for your porn.
To get a little more serious about it look into Who is buying our media outlets and who is buying our financial outlets (visa/mastercard).
This is almost always being pushed by a rightwing cult. Sorry "thinktank".
They have to fast track the mandatory ID laws now because the Epstein files is rapidly making people realize what their true intentions are
A lot of websites have already done that. A lot of image hosting sites. If I forget to turn the VPN on my feed looks about 30% like this
Unless you're based in or have some kind of presence in those countries there's no reason to even ban them. Banning by geolocation isn't exactly trivial or reliable. Let them figure out a way to ban you instead.
Hm well Britain did try to fine 4chan. Amusing conceptually but it does mean they're not above picking on website owners for not complying with their rules, regardless of where they are based.
These people are idiots
Even if an ID was verified without storing any data, how would they know if people were reusing the same ID or if someone else was accessing the account? ID verification isn't the solution. But punishing negligent parents will incentivize them to do their job and watch what their kids do online
Fortunately all the good VPN providers have onion services and accept monero
Let's assume the UK (and others) take a fully-fascist approach and try to squash VPNs within their jurisdiction. What would they have to do to achieve this, and is it practical? The way I see it, they'd have to...
- keep track the IPs of any VPN entry node (to update blocklists, see step 2)
- have them blocked (e.g. by using mandatory DNS filtering, probably applied at the ISP level)
- make sure people do not just switch to DNS servers not under their / the ISPs' control.
Can somebody chime in and check my reasoning? The way I see it, this will hold off non-technical folks, but to make it absolutely waterproof would be quite hard and require a game of constant whack-a-mole, wouldn't it?
1 & 2 contradict. You're suggesting blocking the IP addresses of known VPNs (which is what they would have to do if they wanted this to work in the slightest). DNS blocking (which is something they've made ISPs do in the past) is pretty pointless, since you can resolve the IP address of a host multiple different ways (like switch DNS server, use a custom downloadable hosts file...)
They'd tell the ISPs they need to block traffic to VPNs, and then fine them if they let traffic through, shifting the responsibility to the ISP.
That's going to be a crazy policy to try and enforce. Reminds me of the US attempt to ban sports gambling online but only domestically. That just prompted people to make accounts overseas.
As usual, the governmental response is to increase the surveillance state and punish the end users, without addressing the incentive to create or distribute illicit content. They're just feeding a sprawling black market which... may be the intent. Black markets are notoriously unregulated and far easier to manipulate/gouge/swindle people over.
Guess the number of tor users in the UK is about to explode
I wonder if in the future we'll get to know exactly who pressed the digital freedoms crackdown button on the summer of 2025. Things were going backwards already before then but the sudden acceleration is curious and concerning to me.
It's to move to a risk management based society. Look at the sociology behind all of this and you would see a counter example. this was already being accelerated the first step was facial recognition years ago. Surveillance states are defaults in risk management societies. In a nutshell if we treat everyone like a criminal then its only a matter of time before we catch someone is their consciousness going forward.
Guilty until proven innocent.
It's not just age verification: the identity-verifying document's image is kept on servers for future use. Theoretically by governments verifying, practically so that everyone's identity can be highjacked in a leak.
Adult verification is simply determining a single bit: is this person an adult or not? We have had zero-knowledge proof for ages: if the government really wanted to determine this single bit, it could do so without jeopardizing everyone's privacy and online security.
Gotta punish the peasants for daring to look into the private life of the pedophiles.
Have you considered how you use the internet and don't spend enough money to be a greater sin? You should.
I like how this is the same country that brought us 1984
Orwell was a British police officer in Myanmar, crushing independence movements and worker organizations, during the early parts of his career.
He wrote these books from lived experience. As propaganda tools to antagonize against the USSR, they were brilliant expressions of the very Doublespeak his most famous book coined. Using fear of the foreigner to rally people into the Two Minute Hate sessions he ostensibly pillared.
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