this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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Being pushed for a technologically illiterate ex headteacher as usual.

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[–] Trihilis@ani.social 38 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Well this was 100% to be expected. Banning VPNs is next, then TOR and before you know it you have to scan your ID to even access the internet.

Say goodbye to the "free" internet. Say hello to Orwellian "state approved" internet.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

You cannot feasibly ban VPNs. Too many use cases for businesses.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Oi oi oi, you got a loicense for that vpn?

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Easily solvable, already is. Laws for me, not for thee.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

And what about all the companies that use VPNs? Do they just shut down because the government made them illegal?

One thing I know about my country is that companies rule what happens and so this would never happen.

If you don’t believe me, then feel free to educate me on how you would do this and countries that have already succeeded.

Furthermore you can disguise VpN traffic as regular old HTTPs traffic.

illegal

What's that got to do with corporations?

you can

The people making these laws wouldn't care if they understood, wouldn't undersrand if they knew, and absolutely aren't interested in knowing. Basically ever.

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And what about all the companies that use VPNs? Do they just shut down because the government made them illegal?

Just literally told you how. One line. Easy. Just declare VPN usage illegal for the common plebeian or when not credentialed with a company that is reporting to the government. Ez pz.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No country on Earth has successfully banned VPNs. End of.

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The purpose of a ban is not necessarily to 100% remove use. A law can not, by definition, make something happen or not happen (think eg.: speed cap in traffic law). It does give the lawhandler permission to remove your rights if you are "found" to be infringing.

Indeed and many countries have tried from China, Iran, UAE, to Russia and North Korea. Yet none of them have succeeded and as shit as my government is I can’t see them wasting time and energy going this route when it has never worked.

As I said previously even if you could block the VPN ports and stuff it’s a trivial task to obfuscate your VPN traffic as regular HTTPs traffic.

[–] Trihilis@ani.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

I really hope you are right. I truly do.

[–] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 36 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"We want a list of people using VPNs, when and where. So we can corelate that with traffic flow data and service providers."

This has nothing to do with porn or kids. This is about power and curtailing speech.

[–] okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Man, UK is such a weird nanny state. It seems like parental responsibility is completely abdicated to the state. I am not terribly surprised though given the last time I was there, at every train station I saw multiple people employed to harass travelers to step back from the line as if the fully grown adults were completely unaware that trains were coming through.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

This is not limited to UK. The EU is implementing de-anonymising internet users under guise of child safety as well. It passed EU council and parliament earlier this year. So all member countries will be forced to implement it.

(1)

[–] okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're not wrong, but at least the EU country I'm in strongly opposes it.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If you group votes by country, then every country voted pro (1).

If you group votes by political party, only the European Conservatives and Reformists were divided 50/50, all other parties voted overwhelmingly pro.

[–] okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the info even if it is disappointing 🖖

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 5 points 2 weeks ago

It does seem very strange how we're losing any cultural concept of parenting. Then again it's probably just one more side effect of hardcore neoliberalism squashing people.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 weeks ago

It's weird, the world in general is heading in this direction, just seems Britain has been at it for longer. I've always wondered why (saw it in the 70's, it's just gotten more "normal"). Seems the EU has a strong "safetyism" mindset.

In the US it seems to come from two directions: litigation when someone gets injured either by an indifferent company or the idiocy of an idiot not following safety protocols, the other being some parents fear everything and want to bubble wrap the world.

To paraphrase the sheriff in Cool Hand Luke:

"So you get what we have here today - kids who have no resilience, no ability to cope in the real world. Well, that's the way these parents want it, so they get it"

(in the movie, the sheriff is pointing out Luke's stubborn refusal to understand how things work, and that he has some culpability too).

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's weird, the world in general is heading in this direction, just seems Britain has been at it for longer. I've always wondered why (saw it in the 70's, it's just gotten more "normal"). Seems the EU has a strong "safetyism" mindset.

In the US it seems to come from two directions: litigation when someone gets injured either by an indifferent company or the idiocy of an idiot not following safety protocols, the other being some parents fear everything and want to bubble wrap the world.

To paraphrase the sheriff in Cool Hand Luke:

"So you get what we have here today - kids who have no resilience, no ability to cope in the real world. Well, that's the way these parents want it, so they get it"

(in the movie, the sheriff is pointing out Luke's stubborn refusal to understand how things work, and that he has some culpability too).

[–] iii@mander.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've always wondered why

I think the high trust to low trust societal spectrum is a major explanator (1).

No need to police the other if you believe you've, more or less, each other's best interest at heart. It's that that's disappeared.

UK has always been a thrown together of multiple countries and colonies, with remaining animosity. They've been a low trust society (at least at the national level) for longer than other countries have.

That's my guess at least.

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

yes because children can purchase a VPN connection without any help.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Well, yeah, they can. I don't agree with this, to be clear, but surely they can. Plus there's some free ones, including ProtonVPN.

[–] CucumberFetish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And there probably are some free ones which still sell access to your home network/computer. Let's protect kids harder by pushing them to download sketchy software!

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the free tiers are all basically useless lets not waste each other's time with nonsense. and the vast majority require a CC to purchase. so again, lets not waste each others time.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Certainly not. When I tried free Proton I could get up to 600Mbps. That is very usable.

Furthermore, some can be purchased via other methods like cash (Mullvad, IVPN, Proton). I am sure they can buy postage stamps and send mail.

And Mullvad vouchers are also sold physically in few stores based on their website, though only in Sweden (Inet, Webhallen) and Germany (ProxyStore).

Lastly, kids can also have their own debit cards too, or just steal their parent's. OR, there's stuff like Visa gift cards.

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

you seem really stuck on this. lol. go ahead find me the child mailing mullvad, ivpn, and proton. technically you're correct. but I assure you almost no child does this and if they did their almost certain capable enough to work around any road blocks you start putting up. like switching to a client that supports i2p.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

When I tried free Proton I could get up to 600Mbps.

It should be noted for everyone else that this is very likely bullshit, and even if it’s not, your speeds depend entirely upon how full the server is and won’t be that fast most of the time. Proton’s free tier is known for being absolute garbage most of the time, bordering on unusable.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)


Tested with SANET (Slovak academic network).

It's an old result, tried with exit IP 89.187.164.251.

I tried to search it up, it is shown in one list of ProtonVPN addresses on Google, but the GitHub site gives 404.

Edit: Wireguard, I should add.

[–] riskable@programming.dev 8 points 2 weeks ago

I guess it's just too late for those kids that viewed porn. What are they going to do with all those dead bodies?

[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How about you let parents deal with their own kids and you stay the fuck out of people's lives, eh?

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Let me MITM my own kids and leave me alone. They will know I can see what they are looking at and they will fear me.

[–] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Stop children ~~using VPNs~~ existing to watch porn, ministers told

Radical times, radical solutions.

[–] Eryn6844@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

who are paying for these VPNS? adults? why?