VPN Ban for under 18s

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn438z3ejxyo

I don't know how they're going to implement this because some browsers have built in vpns. Personally, I'm concerned that the government ban vpns altogether.

It will be interesting to see if those saying that wouldn't happen will start to listen now, or whether everybody else's freedoms have to be curtailed for poor policy's.

E2A: wrong post,

Correct post :😀

There will be a register of VPN users - you will need to provide ID to sign up.

That register will be managed by a third party company with links to various politicians.

It will be totally safe from hacking or data loss.

A new offence will be created of allowing an under 18 year old to use a VPN in the UK and of publishing or hosting material that explains or signposts techniques to bypass the law

Politicians and the right businessmen will be exempt from the law as they can be trusted.

How am I doing ?

Yeah, those are great excuses reasons and I'm sure the government will trot them out very soon. What could possibly go wrong?

This is why a thread view would be a good option for MN - especially if someone can post a reply to an edited post.

Er yeah I just don't trust the state anymore. I half expect them to announce a new lockdown, closing churches and parks, every time a flu is going around and to imprison women for identifying as women. I imagine they will try to ban VPNs and implement digital ID and tell us it will help them reverse the Boris Wave and we all agree because we are an agreeable people but then we find out a year later 1 billion additional random men have entered the country and some are former al-Qaeda

Personally I had no problem with lockdowns except for how appallingly shambolic they were.

However I would agree about not trusting the state. And this is a deeply rooted instinct borne of noticing that when the state says "trust me" bad things start to happen.

Funny old world.

in related news

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/uk_apple_backdoor_uturn/

Probably right about that. But the fact is that vpns can't be effectively policed, otherwise the dark Web would have been shut down years ago. We will end up with minors using the onion browsers and accessing far worse than a bit of vanilla porn.

All because parents cba to parent.

No one trusts information to be kept safe and not sold on by third party providers. What if our government changed and the new one decided that anyone gay should be locked up/murdered? They would have lists of people to lock up right Infront of them.

It's not like the government can keep their own data safe without leaks.

Probably right about that. But the fact is that vpns can't be effectively policed, otherwise the dark Web would have been shut down years ago.

VPNs are nothing to do with the dark web, which exists in a communications protocol called onion. Dark web links use the pseudo domain ".onion". So you have http://dodgysite.onion

They are very good at keeping that a secret though ....

I can see the day when enforced digital id is hacked and criminals will be able to view everything about us. It'll be a blackmailers paradise. There'll be some incompetent government individual, who got their job through nepotism, sitting giggling and going "oopsie", when everything goes wrong.

Basically the trust - and therefore value - of information held online will diminish.

That's my point. If they can't use vpns they will go for the next best thing. Both hide your location. It's next to impossible to police either. They can't even keep the pirate bay down ffs, its not like we're talking about a competent government here.

As predicted, people who work in IT aren't backwards about coming forwards

Commentards are on their usual high form 😀

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/uk_commissioner_suggests_govt_stop/

A prophecy from 1996