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Sexuality is a human right, and controlling sexuality is an authoritarian tactic to manufacture compliance.
“Age verification” is not just a tool for elimination of Internet privacy, it’s also a tool for sexual control.
Someone has been reading 1984… I’m not disagreeing with you, just saying ‘hi fellow doom reader’.
Bro, we are living 1984.
2026 - 1984 = 42
o__O
Hey I heard that theres a Very Pretty Neat trick for Brits to "travel abroad" effortlessly
House of Lords voted for age verification on VPNs. Not for them of course.....
So rent a VPS abroad and run your own VPN from it. Comercial VPNs have a business to maintain so they've got to comply to keep operating and public advertising, but a privately run VPN just for yourself is just another TLS connection in a sea of other traffic.
I'm aware, got options set up. But the vast majority of people? It's not all about me like.
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Give it a bit of time and you'll need a license to use a VPN. Without a license, your ISP can snitch in you. Unless you use starlink.
Your ISP could snitch on you for tons of 'illegal' traffic, but they don't because that would require deep packet inspection on an absurd amount of traffic and they gain nothing for it. Instead they pass on notices when they receive them from third parties, and take enforcement actions (like cutting off their service to you) only when they're directed to. They want your money after all.
Torrenting for example; only gets flagged when copyright holders join torrent trackers, then send letters to ISPs that control the IPs found in those groups. That's not the ISP hunting you down, they're just passing on a legal notice they've been given and thus are obligated to pass it to you.
From and ISPs perspective; a VPN connection doesn't look any different than any other TLS connection, ie https. There's nothing for them to snitch because a) they can't tell the difference without significant investment to capture and perform deep analysis on traffic at an absurd scale and b) they have no desire to even look and then snitch on customers, that just costs them paying customers.
The ONLY reason this can be enforced at all, is because comercial VPN companies want to advertise and sell their services to customers; so lawmakers can directly view and monitor those services.
Lawmakers have no way of even knowing about, let alone inspecting an individuals private VPN that's either running from private systems or from a foreign VPS.
All that's not even touching things like SSH tunneling - in a sense, creating a VPN from an SSH connection; one of the most ubiquitous protocols for controlling server infrastructure around the globe. Even if traffic was inspected to find SSH connections, you CAN'T block this or you disrupt IT infrastructure at such an alarming scale there'd be riots.
This is the UK. You need a licence for a TV. I almost would guarantee that this is happening
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Then we just need a hero to route all our traffic through the House of Lords.
Doesn't matter. Chinese people found a way around the firewall, pretty sure there are nerds in UK that will find a way.
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Not really. They just announced they want to age gate VPNs too.
So I guess no more internships at companies with more than one office.
China doesn't even really allow VPNs at all, yet some people can still go over the firewall.
If it's just "age restriction", I'm sure there will suddenly be a lot of grandpa/grandmas buying VPNs¹
¹When China tried to restrict online video games, kids just used their grandparents IDs for verification lmfao
China's VPN blocking is actually very, very effective, and the vast majority of people don't go around it.
And that's kinda the point - the controls don't have to be 100%, they just have to cover the majority. And for the few that do circumvent - well, that's just one more easy crime for the authorities to charge you with if they ever feel the need.
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Good job UK, you will push children to dangerous unmoderated sites instead! All in the name of state surveillance!
This will lead to, sexual blackmail of children, suicide and financial fraud.
You should thank the UK for sacrificing so many of its citizens to show the world what peak government stupidity looks like. We thought the point was made with Brexit, but the UK says “hold my beer” one more time.
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If you live in the UK or in another country where porn is being restricted:
- Talk with friends and family about getting a VPN (EDIT: Some recommendations I've heard are Air VPN, Private Internet Access, and, despite not having port forwarding, which is essentially one less major feature, Mullvad VPN. A thank-you to @jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com for suggesting the former two.)
- Learn to use the Tor network (it's really easy to start, and unlike popular belief, Tor isn't only for illegal activities)
- Pressure MPs that didn't vote in favor of the age verification bill by sending emails to them about it so that they fight (or keep fighting) this age verification nonsense.
You don't need to be a porn addict to do these things. In fact, they have started with porn, but they may as well keep going and fight for age verification in other types of content, making access to said content way more difficult. The best thing you can do right now is to learn to fight back.
If you live in the UK or in another country where porn is being restricted: Talk with friends and family
Hmmmmm... Maybe not though
" Help me, stepbro. I can't access PornHub anymore 🥹 "
Im stuck in age-verification
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UK is going to be requiring age verification for VPN access. https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-house-of-lords-votes-to-extend-age-verification-to-vpns
Will this mean all VPNs will comply? Obviously not, but the bigger names will either pull out or comply as we seeing with the bigger porn sites.
The next step after this will be criminalization of using a VPN without age verification.
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Advertising for mullvad harms the peer2peer network. (They blocked port forwarding and won't be bringing it back)
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Yall may wanna step in and nip that kind of authoritarianism in the bud because it doesn't get easier when it's matured.
Oh no... Let's just Google what other porn sites are out there. Oh look 1,642,000 results found...
That's not the point. This is a protest by the company running these sites against a system that's not fit for its claimed purpose (age restriction of websites) but is very fit for surveillance.
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What would we even call a decentralized porn site?
There calling it NoFap February.
I think it will be interesting to see what happens as a result of cuting a population off from porn.
They will just rely on illegal outlets now lol Can’t wait to see people locked up for porn lol one of the stupidest ways to spend government money lol
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Texas did the same shit not long ago. VPN usage went through the roof, as expected.
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I remember when you didn't have to have a VPN to enjoy the internet.
This leaves citizens with a torrent of questions.
You really need a VPN to torrent safely, and the UK Government is in the process of restricting VPNs.
I guarantee there will still be VPNs accessible in the UK no matter what they try. My money is definitely on Mullvad still being accessible for one.
So that's why that back mirror episode with the pig was set in the UK. They knew.
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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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