This is such a yikes and gets worse if you take the time frame out wider than this
More and more personal (or in this case parental) responsibility is being delegated to the state…
Shame.
Close enough welcome back Russia
With all of the things happening with internet privacy recently, I can’t help but feel like some of the big VPN providers days are numbered. The dinosaurs will find a way to go after them.
Can someone in good faith explain to me why limiting youth access to sexual material is bad because I constantly see people saying this is bad but I can’t comprehend why you would want an 8 year old even ABLE to access that material
Edit: So the consensus below is that there is extreme overreach by creating data that associates people with their porn use and could be weaponized by a malevolent government or even hacker because these are private corps. This does honestly outweigh any potential benefit. Thanks for the explanation, yall.
I do still think we should be looking at better ways to keep young children away from adult material, studies show it is detrimental to their mental health. I think it’s clear at this point that relying on parents, as much as that SHOULD be the case, is not reasonable.
But it’s been made clear to me this is not the way to do it, and is likely just a funnel for some data corps to make profit.
Yet another generation pushed to explore VPNs , Tor , and the dark web because of well meaning idiots in yet another government.
What are the chances the owners of these companies have been making political donations?
valid passport details and recent photo of your self must be sent to every website you use ive read they are totally profiling everyone and storing these records as you are tracked the open internet is dead now.
Eventually, a vpn will be running through a private and artificial island, but what would one call such a place?
The Fortress of Solitude ?
They did what? That’s crazy man! They should demand to see the search history of their MPs if they want to invade people’s privacy like this.
better yet, i can open pretty much any strictly adult website i want as an EU citizen but twitter won’t let me see a drawing of breasts if it’s algorithm doesn’t hallucinate an age verification for me (it seems theres no way to verify yourself without directly contacting support as of now?)
I love how government is always years behind average people. Let’s wait a few more years so they will introduce a new law that bans using ChatGPT at school.
The UK is exactly the kind of place that might ban VPNs next
I’m actually taking it as an impetus to help me quit porn. I’d already coincidentally not been watching it for a few days due to unrelated circumstances, and now that I’d have to pay to watch it again (or else chance it with a free VPN), there’s a natural barrier there that I find quite helpful. Having to either take a picture of myself getting ready to rub one out, or put in my card details somewhere, is just enough resistance for me to not bother.
I suspect the panic about young boys watching extreme content is disproportionate – there was already plenty of extreme stuff on mainstream websites, and regardless, it’s likely that they will go right back to the same websites once they’ve set up a VPN.
I think the whole affair has shone a light on the very real cybersecurity exposure that comes with online pornography, however. You are very directly exposing yourself (in every sense) to a part of the internet which is almost entirely composed of unscrupulous actors.
Guardian reporting this as a ‘seatbelt’ moment is absolute trash. It’s not based on any evidence and is just conservative had wringing and progressive deflection from the real issues.
this law has the indirect effect of making people research how to skirt online censorship, so it’s a good law overall because it makes people learn something useful
They will eventually ban VPN services in the UK.
How is a screenshot of a phone showing a Google trends page getting upvoted? This is trash.
Lucky the ID stuff doesn’t extend to the channel islands. Where I’m from. Mhm. Yep.
Why is the onus not on the parents to monitor their kids online activity?
21 comments
This is such a yikes and gets worse if you take the time frame out wider than this
More and more personal (or in this case parental) responsibility is being delegated to the state…
Shame.
Close enough welcome back Russia
With all of the things happening with internet privacy recently, I can’t help but feel like some of the big VPN providers days are numbered. The dinosaurs will find a way to go after them.
Can someone in good faith explain to me why limiting youth access to sexual material is bad because I constantly see people saying this is bad but I can’t comprehend why you would want an 8 year old even ABLE to access that material
Edit: So the consensus below is that there is extreme overreach by creating data that associates people with their porn use and could be weaponized by a malevolent government or even hacker because these are private corps. This does honestly outweigh any potential benefit. Thanks for the explanation, yall.
I do still think we should be looking at better ways to keep young children away from adult material, studies show it is detrimental to their mental health. I think it’s clear at this point that relying on parents, as much as that SHOULD be the case, is not reasonable.
But it’s been made clear to me this is not the way to do it, and is likely just a funnel for some data corps to make profit.
Most of the “adult sites” were not even strictly adult sites but things that may or may not have things kids shouldn’t see. That’s all fine and dandy but this shouldn’t need a webcam face ID or a [request](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/24/what-are-the-new-uk-online-safety-rules-and-how-will-they-be-enforced) to a credit company.
*wipes tear*
Yet another generation pushed to explore VPNs , Tor , and the dark web because of well meaning idiots in yet another government.
What are the chances the owners of these companies have been making political donations?
valid passport details and recent photo of your self must be sent to every website you use ive read they are totally profiling everyone and storing these records as you are tracked the open internet is dead now.
Eventually, a vpn will be running through a private and artificial island, but what would one call such a place?
The Fortress of Solitude ?
They did what? That’s crazy man! They should demand to see the search history of their MPs if they want to invade people’s privacy like this.
better yet, i can open pretty much any strictly adult website i want as an EU citizen but twitter won’t let me see a drawing of breasts if it’s algorithm doesn’t hallucinate an age verification for me (it seems theres no way to verify yourself without directly contacting support as of now?)
I love how government is always years behind average people. Let’s wait a few more years so they will introduce a new law that bans using ChatGPT at school.
The UK is exactly the kind of place that might ban VPNs next
I’m actually taking it as an impetus to help me quit porn. I’d already coincidentally not been watching it for a few days due to unrelated circumstances, and now that I’d have to pay to watch it again (or else chance it with a free VPN), there’s a natural barrier there that I find quite helpful. Having to either take a picture of myself getting ready to rub one out, or put in my card details somewhere, is just enough resistance for me to not bother.
I suspect the panic about young boys watching extreme content is disproportionate – there was already plenty of extreme stuff on mainstream websites, and regardless, it’s likely that they will go right back to the same websites once they’ve set up a VPN.
I think the whole affair has shone a light on the very real cybersecurity exposure that comes with online pornography, however. You are very directly exposing yourself (in every sense) to a part of the internet which is almost entirely composed of unscrupulous actors.
Guardian reporting this as a ‘seatbelt’ moment is absolute trash. It’s not based on any evidence and is just conservative had wringing and progressive deflection from the real issues.
this law has the indirect effect of making people research how to skirt online censorship, so it’s a good law overall because it makes people learn something useful
They will eventually ban VPN services in the UK.
How is a screenshot of a phone showing a Google trends page getting upvoted? This is trash.
Lucky the ID stuff doesn’t extend to the channel islands. Where I’m from. Mhm. Yep.
Why is the onus not on the parents to monitor their kids online activity?
Comments are closed.