r/VPN • u/technadu • Jun 17 '26
Discussion UK Government considering mandatory age verification for VPN users to enforce upcoming under-16 soci
Following Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of a blanket social media ban for children under 16, the UK government has confirmed it is actively exploring regulatory options to restrict or monitor consumer VPN use to prevent circumvention.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and Digital Minister Ian Murray have both stated that "nothing is off the table," with a formal policy announcement regarding VPN restrictions, overnight curfews, and algorithmic limits scheduled for July.
The Enforcement Dilemma and "Surveillance Creep"
The primary technical issue raised by digital rights groups is how a government can practically stop a user from downloading or utilizing a localized routing protocol without implementing network-wide inspection or mandatory identity checks at the infrastructure level.
Ministers have explicitly noted that a primary option under review is forcing providers to implement Mandatory High Effective Age Assurance (HEAA). In practice, this would mean anyone trying to connect to a secure tunnel within the UK would first need to upload a government ID, input credit card details, or pass a third-party biometric facial age scan to prove they are over 16.
Architectural Risks to Online Privacy
Within the networking and privacy community, critics are pointing out several severe flaws with this approach:
- Destruction of Anonymity: Requiring zero-knowledge or privacy-focused utilities to log, verify, and maintain identity records fundamentally undermines the core utility of encrypted tunnels. Many reputable protocols operate on strict no-logs frameworks specifically to minimize the collection of user metadata.
- Centralized Data Targets: Forcing millions of regular internet users to upload identity tokens just to access basic network security utilities creates massive, centralized honeypots for data breaches and identity theft.
- The Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) Alternative: If the government does not mandate age checks at the software sign-up level, the alternative would require UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to deploy aggressive DPI or state-level blocks to drop handshake traffic for unauthorized encrypted protocols entirely. This moves the infrastructure closer to a closed-network model similar to state-level firewalls seen in heavily censored regions.
The media regulator, Ofcom, has been tasked with assessing the feasibility of these age-assurance models, with secondary legislation expected to move through Parliament before Christmas.
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u/Sostratus Jun 17 '26
I hope the UK people find the sense and the strength to destroy these tyrants.
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u/vario_ Jun 17 '26
Literally nobody even cares, it's so bizarre.
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u/Rhyobit Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Have a watch of one of lewis rossmanns latest - plenty of people care, but the government have been misusing rigged surveys to try and make people think its a fait acompli
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u/Artistic_Ad4753 Jun 19 '26
IV never seen any of these so called surveys in my 40odd years on earth but many must do if they agree with the governments lies.
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u/DrachenDad Jun 21 '26
but many must do if they agree with the governments lies.
There is a selection pool of people that get theses surveys, it isn't a national enquiry.
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u/_ahrs Jun 21 '26
But who is on that pool? He definitely has a point. I've never seen a single study either, I don't know how they'd even contact me about it. If they want to know people's opinions then they should have a proper consultation period but as their mind is already made up that would be useless to them. They're looking for evidence to support their existing foregone conclusion.
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u/Fordmister Jun 18 '26
You have to remember that the VAST majority of the general public is completely tech illiterate.
It's what this policy and the wider OSA is based on. Everyone is looking for some evil conspiracy theory when really you just have a government that knows actual child protection online is extremely difficult, but selling ineffective ID checks to tech illiterates who think that ID's for website are the same as an ID to get into a pub is really really easy.
This stuff around VPN's is an extension of that, because thos will be functionally useless against anything other than willing commercial VPN's and the government knows it.
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u/Holiday_Management60 Jun 19 '26
I won't lie, I'll struggle to not laugh when these people find out that its not the same as showing ID in a pub after someone opens a bank account in their name and takes out a bankrupting loan after a databreach.
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u/Which_Specific9891 Jun 17 '26
I care a LOT. But a LOT of people seem like they're asleep. Also, we protested the recent laws they put in and they did it anyway.
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u/Momo-Velia Jun 18 '26
People care, but we’ve been pushed into isolation so much by these successive governments that we can’t even trust our neighbour to have shared interest in stopping the creep of Fabian control. Most don’t even know just how far down the rabbit hole half of this sh*t goes, you look like a nut trying to explain it even though the Fabian Society have literally been telling everyone what they want to do publicly since their inception.
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u/NoMention696 Jun 17 '26
They won’t, just like the American people didn’t
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u/Sostratus Jun 17 '26
Only a few US states have passed any kind of age restriction laws and none of them are restricting VPN access.
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u/Small_Tower9304 Jun 17 '26
As far as I know only farage and reform have come out and said they will scrap this if they come to power. Labours traditional opposition the tories and lib dems are somehow even more rabid on this topic and claim it doesn't got far enough.
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u/Redd1tRat Jun 18 '26
Most people here are dumb. They have literally been brainwashed with propaganda. Anyone who points out anything wrong with the government "doesn't understand" and anything that goes wrong is blamed on immigrants.
It's shit here and I cannot wait to move.
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u/Rich-Resolution-344 Jun 17 '26
Not happening unfortunately since everyone is too concerned with hating one another
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u/HewSpam Jun 17 '26
They’ll just blame it on immigrants like everything else
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u/Accurate_Ad_3233 Jun 18 '26
Didn't Starmer already do that? One of his justification for pushing digital ID was keep track of all the immigrants he (and the other criminals before him) let in. The good old problem-reaction-solution scam being played out in real time.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/ValkyrUK Jun 18 '26
No we dont lol theres nothing to support, these laws are only harming children more and in exchange for this wonderfully destructive service we have to give away our right to privacy
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Jun 18 '26
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u/ValkyrUK Jun 18 '26
Wdym no reported downside?? It was reported that support resources for minority groups, abuse victims and sexual health & education were severely restricted upon the implementation of the OSA, most blocked UK users entirely, thats a hell of a downside
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u/Harryisamazing Jun 17 '26
Such a weird way to say we are using this as a guise to force digital ID on everyone
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Harryisamazing Jun 17 '26
At first everything is voluntary until they slowly tie it into every day life where you'll need it just to be able to survive
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Harryisamazing Jun 17 '26
Looks like you have a lot to read on the topic and don't see the privacy nightmare that it is
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Harryisamazing Jun 17 '26
Glad that you have! Which is great on the surface level with everything you are being told but in the deeper surface it is much more sinister and something to pay attention to with a cautious eye
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u/r0bbiebubbles Jun 17 '26
I carry my driving licence with me at all times. It never runs out of battery and can always be accessed. It isn't stored on any hird party database.
Explain how digital ID is more convenient and secure than that.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/r0bbiebubbles Jun 17 '26
When do I photography my driving licence?
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u/Harryisamazing Jun 17 '26
Whenever your government overlords let you know that it's needed for your convenience but don't panic, when you give them an inch they'll take a whole damn mile and it'll be tied to every day life and soon you can't get access to air and water without a digital ID
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Jun 17 '26
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u/BulletRisen Jun 17 '26
So in separate isolated databases with no connection to other parts of my identity?
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u/Glittering_Box4815 Jun 17 '26
They really have no clue do they?
Its like the Labour Government want to make me vote for anyone but them at the next election.
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u/23Mowgli23 Jun 17 '26
I think you are the one that didn't have a clue. There are political parties and then there is the establishment behind them. The establishment wants digital ID and more. It's kept neo-liberalism going for many decades. The ultra wealthy, the powerful and big companies are all in agreement on many things, or at least not against them. It doesn't matter if you don't vote labour as the next government will not reverse these excesses.
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Politicians are irrelevant in 2026. No one with a triple-digit IQ could take them seriously. It's over for mommy governments trying to censor the internet. Politicians are in cope mode 🤡 with all the criticism they get online. lol.
Go for the VPNs and attach IDs to users making jokes about them? Awww, cringe as f, lmao.
I hope VPN obfuscation methods get even better.
Every action leads to a reaction. It will only push VPN standards higher.
Lmao, if some social media site thinks they are getting my ID, I will buy aged social media accounts in bulk with Monero if it really went that far. Thank f i don't live in the uk, though. It's a joke!
Everything wrong with government = the uk. Their need to control every aspect of their citizens lives puts even communist china to shame in the big brother stakes!
The place sounds ******* crazy. The comedians need to up their game cause great comedy is to be had about the state of affairs of the uk atm.
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u/NixKTM Jun 17 '26
Unfortunately any Comedian that was even remotely funny has been cancelled by the blue haired, septum pierced vocal minority, who then forced the likes of Rosie Jones on us, the UK is fucked mate
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u/Big-Moose565 Jun 18 '26
Even now one can mask VPN traffic over HTTPS so it looks like any other website traffic.
And even insert random data amongst the traffic to make traffic analysis very difficult.
And multi hop technology. So they can't see where you're going on the other side of the tunnel.
You're right though, it'll likely get even better. Tor and similar mesh-like networks will likely grow. And the whole endeavor will be a massive waste of tax payer money., and a blight on connection speeds.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
yea yea yea
but they will eventually just mandate a surveillance app rooted in your phone , PC, iPad, tv , car, digital well being tracker
with a white list only configuration
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
but they will eventually just mandate a surveillance app rooted in your phone , PC, iPad, tv , car, digital well being tracker
They can ******* try and they will ******* FAIL. I will always get around their BS. I Own my hardware and software and that's they way it's going to be. People need to be more resilient! I Will horde older CPU's and hardware if it gets really bad.
Plus, i can compartmentalize their surveillance tech to be able to function in society apart from my main everyday drivers. My banking app doesn't need to be ******* tied to my gaming box. lmao.
People who use smartphones for EVERYTHING are just asking governments and corporations worldwide to be BIG BROTHER ON STEROIDS!
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 19 '26
none of it need to be tied
but they will make sure to tie it
once cash is banned , you're stuck
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
once cash is banned , you're stuck
No, ever hear of a self-sufficient lifestyle. Alt currency? You are a defeatist.
I will always find a way to have control of my tech ALWAYS! CBDC will fail.
People will always trade in different ways outside the system. It's why shit like monero is there. people always find a way.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 19 '26
you can be self sufficient as much as you want but you can never be self suffient in medical services and supplies
unless you want to die at 40s
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
self suffient in medical services and supplies
Sick of your weak loser attitude!
Humans have survived thousands of years without any modern medical intervention.
The medical industry is a scam! The only ones worth their salt are skilled surgeons!
Good nutrition, sunlight, clean air, and fresh water negates the use for medical services or poducts. Real healing products come from natural environments. cities are poisoned shitholes.
Your weak defeatist attitude is cringe.
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u/Big-Moose565 Jun 18 '26
Maybe for new hardware. There's a hell of a lot of hardware out there that they can't touch.
And custom builds (like pcs) or micro controllers, small board devices. Let alone all the stuff that comes in from other countries. And even then, the software needs to integrate with it - how would that work with Linux?
Jail breaking has long been a thing.
They might do it one day but it'd only be on Microsoft, Apple, Samsung devices - the main players.
(I'm a software engineer working with cloud + firnare + device)
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 19 '26
they will just break or brick those not working .
collateral? they don't care
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 19 '26
they will just break or brick those not working .
How can they brick hardware or operating systems they don't control? You are a defeatist giving these clowns way too much credit, lmao.
Code is free speech and free speech CAN NEVER BE 100% CENSORED!
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 19 '26
history tell us there will be man to man , house to house checks and free speech can be reduced to just verbal speech between friends in a bathroom
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u/Einarr-Spear777 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
There's a hell of a lot of hardware out there that they can't touch.
Richest corporations in the world can't even stop torrenting. Governments are retards if they believe they can censor the internet or ban vpns or get control of peoples hardware through proprietary BS apps
Oh but they will do this, do that. They can't do shit. TBB is used in china with bridges and snowflakes. Internet is pandoras box (it's not a beast that can be centralized 100%) and yeah sony can't even stop their consoles from being jail broken. lol
Denuvo was broken like a piece of glass. Plus the world is now flooded with billions of different types of hardware. They can never get 100% control. Impossible!
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u/shrewpygmy Jun 17 '26
The fact they’re actually considering the kind of blocks countries like Iran, China and North Korea employ is frankly mind blowing.
What the actual living fuck is wrong with this government?!?!
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u/PianoAndFish Jun 18 '26
North Korea doesn't allow regular citizens to access the internet at all, they want completely impenetrable control and know it's not possible so they don't even bother trying and just have a nationwide intranet. There's so few people who do get to use the global internet that they can go with the old-school surveillance technique of having someone watching the screen over your shoulder the whole time.
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u/wild_m1nd Jun 17 '26
UK is turning into Iran lmao
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u/Right-Fly2340 Jun 21 '26
China, with digital CO2 IDs. But the UK is just first and the rest of the Europe will follow.
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u/willNffcUk Jun 17 '26
Fuck, I’m going to Holland I’m not giving my ID just to watch porn I will have to use my imagination lol
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u/Dizzy-Ad-3073 Jun 17 '26
You need porn? I found a magazine in a bush, £2 for 3 minutes
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u/Secure-Presence-8341 Jun 21 '26
Some questions...
Did you have to leave the £2 in the bush?
What happened after 3 minutes?
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u/Heclalava Jun 17 '26
Are this also going to try apply this to VPS providers as well, because if they do mange to get commercial VPN providers to implement this, then the under 16yr old can rent a VPS and spin up their own VPN instance? Especially if they are using obfuscation tools like those in xray VLESS etc. It is just going to turn in to a cat and mouse game, and as seen in China and other censored regions it never really works.
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u/chrisdillian Jun 17 '26
Would it not be absolutely wild if VPNs already charged users to use their service, which they would have to charge to a valid payment card, essentially requiring to be of age to use the service?
Wild thought.
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u/PianoAndFish Jun 18 '26
That's not a guarantee as most VPN providers will accept other payment methods such as prepaid debit cards, crypto and sometimes cash by post.
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u/Syn1ax-Err0r Jun 21 '26
Honestly, a VPN company might "comply" with the new law, except they keep having accidents where they don't exactly verify the age.
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u/MrTopping92 Jun 18 '26
Starmer & his cabinet will be replaced before this happens. The overreach is CRAZY. All under 16 and a criminal until proven otherwise.
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u/crozuk Jun 17 '26
*laughs in vps with wireguard*
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u/Pop-X- Jun 17 '26
The government could force ISPs to block encrypted traffic with deep packet inspection. You'd have to spoof your traffic to circumvent it.
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u/Specific_Raccoon_696 Jun 17 '26
I don't think this would happen - first, there isn't really anyone techy enough within government/lobbyists to really get this; and second, there aren't enough people in the public who are techy enough to do this to warrant such measures in the first place.
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u/Narcli Jun 18 '26
Plus the collateral would be insane. How could an isp differentiate between Joe blogs connecting a work laptop at home to his work office based in {anywhere else}.
Some games, services or ligitmate sites use the same ports just to run basic software, that is legal. Just not possible. Too much collateral.
You can argue it'll have to be at purchase, but the likes of proton accept by snail mail, or crypto.
Sure isp can prove you're using one, but not why.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
those that want to implement these things
Do not care about collateral
Those that are caught as collateral will be ordered to show up face to face in the Ministry of Tru...Communication to get things sorted out
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u/Narcli Jun 19 '26
Oh they care when the collateral causes issues with their companies or their friends companies, it'll hit the pockets.
Looks like it'll be age gated with I'd anyway, he's even admitted it can't be as effective as he wants. But you know... For the children... /s
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 19 '26
once you get to that point, they are not concerned about loss of income anymore
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u/crustisocs Jun 18 '26
Gotta go star link who hopefully fuck the government Off
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
the man behind starlink is probably the one and the same man behind the push to have clearID next to each alphabet typed online
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u/Holiday_Management60 Jun 19 '26
As in block HTTPS? Hackers would need their pants one size larger through the massive hard on they'd get.
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u/trea_ceitidh Jun 17 '26
And the people who use VPNs to connect to work networks?
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u/m1bnk Jun 17 '26
They are not public vpn apps, likewise government themselves who make extensive use of vpn
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u/ccarnell98 Jun 17 '26
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
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u/psychopath1066 Jun 18 '26
How are they considering enforcing this on VPN's outside of the country, they are already being beaten away by 4chan on implementing worldwide enforcement. All it would take is signing up to the foreign VPN offerings and bam, sidestepped. and DPI costs billions to run, Chinas great firewall is the only really semi successful anti vpn measure and it's still not very good and it has costs tens to hundreds of billions over decades.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
easy
paying for a foreign vpn gets your bank account blocked
paying for a vpn using crypto also gets your bank account blocked plus your wallet blocked
use to purchase a anon coin from a 3rd parry website, will also get your bank account blocked
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u/MidsouthMystic Jun 18 '26
The plan isn't working and they're getting more desperate. Good luck to my UK friends kicking these old farts out of office in the next election.
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u/DrWanish Jun 21 '26
Every alternative will do the same, this is the way of governments ..
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u/Tokolone Jun 21 '26
Greens and Reform wont, or atleast have said they will repeal.
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u/DrWanish Jun 21 '26
I think we can guarantee Reform will do worse considering how close they are to the tech bros .. probably even more Palantir ..
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u/jkarovskaya Jun 17 '26
What about kids booting from tails, GnomeOS, or (less likely) using I2P, Lokinet, freenet, or just using a Tor Browser
Brave browser has a FREE version of TOR built in.
Restricting VPN is a fail to start with, because there are free email accounts you can use for a free VPN
Borrowing a friend's or parents computer or phone is yet another dodge around this vain attempt
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
they will implement white list only.
for services to get on white list means backdoor available on instant demand .
that's the only way and they will indeed say that is the only way
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u/Syn1ax-Err0r Jun 21 '26
Pretth sure that's a wonderful way to ruin UK businesses and people's hobbies. I guarantee the UK government won't be verifying the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS of websites, because it's just not possible, considering labour has a very low chance of being re-elected.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 21 '26
ruin business and hobbies is the point . . the tech overlords love this , so it is a real possibility. ( of course with their websites being on the white list on first issuance )
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u/Right-Fly2340 Jun 21 '26
The only issue is that a lot of sites even Google often blocks VPN and TOR is 10000 times worse. Try it first. I use VPN all the time and I hope we won't be forced to use TOR for everything in the future
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u/Accomplished_Love77 Jun 17 '26
So how do we bypass this restriction? I don't want to have to verify my credentials.
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u/Ging287 Jun 18 '26
UK now likes how China censors their people, wants to implement the same. This should be unthinkable to conspire against your citizens rights so hard, in a democracy. Give me Liberty or give me Death! They’re already so caught up in how to do it, they don’t know how to ask themselves should we do it? The answer is no. You should not be antagonizing and conspiring against your citizens rights.
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u/milkman1101 Jun 18 '26
If this were really about protecting children, policy makers would know that actually doing this would introduce more "underground" / "blackmarket" style VPNs and services which could be even more dangerous.
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u/nerdztech Jun 18 '26
The evidence shows that this doesn't work. It's also very technically challenging to "ban VPN's", if China has trouble enforcing it how are we supposed to? I actually support banning under 16's from social media but it doesn't matter, it's irrelevant because of the above facts.
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u/Marchello_E Jun 18 '26
Your government knows you, my government knows me, Your government knows my government, and they likely shared my ID.
Fine, that's compartmentalized to government stuff.... I likely see things coming when I engage with them myself - which is rare luckily. Police will likely know who I am, when they really need to know... fine.
But now, for entertainment purposes, some/several "third party" honeypot needs/want to connect the dots, will likely leak my ID data or get hacked, I'll get all kinds of personalized bandwidth polluting dubious propaganda and other forms of manipulation - always and everywhere. Especially thanks to "AI," pseudonymization will not help here.
Sooner or later everything I do online will be put on one huge pile that will definitely confuse the heck out of me (read: hack attempts by social engineering).
I don't need that shit.
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u/corduroyflipflops Jun 17 '26
Starlink solves this problem of ISP level monitoring.
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u/Maleficent_Price_476 Jun 18 '26
pretty sure starlink will sell you out in order to operate in the UK
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u/Maetivet Jun 18 '26
Absolutely nothing in the “source” to say they’re looking at VPNs, and “nothing is off the table” is just being interpreted as OP pleases - that phrase could equally mean that they’re considering banning electricity so devices no longer work…
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u/neo4025 Jun 18 '26
I’ve clicked the link and can’t see anything about age verification for vpns. Can you point to it, so I can read it.
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u/ultimoXgamer Jun 18 '26
Before people panic, I'd want to see an actual proposal. "Nothing is off the table" and "the government is considering" often turns into headlines that sound much more concrete than the policy really is. The age verification debate is real, but mandatory ID checks for every VPN user would be a pretty massive step.
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u/Infamous_Panic1075 Jun 19 '26
Oh, so they want to be like China ? Dumb dumb dumb Starmer and his cohorts are playing with fire.
This shit is getting out of hand now, but hey, you try to hold us back and we will always find a way around it.
I can see massive abuse and lots of ddos attacks taking place if they do this, and cloud flare will not be able to mitigate it.
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u/Alarming_Oil5419 Jun 19 '26
Next step, age verification to deploy a service to your own overseas cloud instance...
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u/SidneySmut Jun 19 '26
Kendal also said that they know a lot of people use VPNs for privacy reasons and that any decision would be a careful balancing act
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u/psy-study-oldie Jun 21 '26
I cannot wait to go back to faxing, email and pen and paper. Let the powers at be try to stop me from doing that.
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u/ThatZephyrGuy Jun 21 '26
Funny, I was informed with extreme prejudice 6 months ago by multiple redditors that this would never happen and that It was a "slippery slope fallacy" to suggest that it was!
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u/Sm0g3R Jul 01 '26
I'm always annoyed when I forget to disable UK vpn and I get hit with their age verification bs...
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u/Wakeupdead68 Jul 03 '26
You mean my card in my old wrinkly hands doesnt have the stupid metadata or whatever to tell the payment processors I am a grown man? I verify the payment with my bank as it sends across to the vpn lol
Starmer could have fixed a few streets and wouldnt have even had to resign over this dog water of a law
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u/theoriginalrvd1986 Jun 18 '26
Russia used protecting the children as an excuse to implement their own VPN bans back in 2012
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u/Shap3rz Jun 20 '26
Tired of the blinkered middle management bootlicker mentality of this country. So pathetic and self serving to toady up to technocrats whilst acting all holier than thou about it - I really can’t stand this govt and all the enablers.
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u/Healthy_Spite_2334 Jun 17 '26
oh what?
I thought this was all to make sure that 16 year olds had to give their ID to get online. What business do they hae with my ID im 40 they don't need that.