You believe all children know how to operate a VPN?

This is the problem. Adults thinking children are useless. Don't you remember being a kid?

Whenever there's a blocker (one case from my childhood was how to use net send to broadcast profanity across the network), someone will figure it out, and by the end of the day EVERYONE knows.

Programming VCRs was famously something kids could understand.

It's not like they need to `sudo apt install openvpn` and tweak the config file manually and tinker with routes and firewall rules afterwards.

Basically every youtube video for the past decade has been sponsored by a VPN service offering first-joiner discounts. My cousin uses a VPN and has no idea what it is and how it works, just that "he should protect himself while browsing". Those VPNs have invested massively in UX and ease of use so out of that 77% of users, I'd guess more than 80% of it switched to VPNs.

Maybe not all, but kids pickup things fast. When I was young the school tried to block a popular flash games website, one lunch hour later and somehow we all learned how to use a VPN. I'd say I owe a lot of my technical ability to learning how to circumvent restrictions on school computers and whatever my parents tried to setup on the home computer.

I agree. My point is we shouldn't simply open the doors for this degenerate content and make it easily accessible for children. Children who are already addicted to porn will be more inclined to find a workaround. But new children who haven't been exposed yet will be less inclined.

Based on my childhood memories, I would say kids are the most likely to figure out how to get a free VPN and look at porn that way.

Or just find another porn site that doesn't adhere to the law.

Lot of them do. Especially hormonal teenagers who have both lot of time and energy to find solutions. Not to forgot the lure of forbidden.

> You believe all children know how to operate a VPN

Yes. That’s exactly what we believe.

Do you believe that 77% of UK Pornhub users suddenly stopped wanking?

Seems pretty implausible to me.

This all or nothing mentality is so disconnected from the real world. Of course some people started using VPNs, of course some children even started doing it. No law can prevent all occurrences of what it tries to prevent. But it can make it more difficult, and heighten the barrier of entry for children that are introduced to the internet.

Kids don’t start out knowing that you type pornhub.com to get porn.

One of their friends sends them a link. Now they just send them a different link, one that goes via a free VPN.

You don't need any new skills for that and it's not a "speedbump".

All this law does is make it harder for adults to use non-porn websites like Reddit, Spotify or Bluesky.

It’s not a good law.

At the next election some portion of Labour voters will remember missteps like this and will vote for someone else because of it.

> At the next election some portion of Labour voters will remember missteps like this and will vote for someone else because of it.

Personally, I think their prosecution of peaceful protestors (Palestine supporters) whilst giving a free pass to right wing violent protestors will alienate their traditional left-wing base.

I don't think the traditional left wing base is too enthused about their intifada brothers to be honest. And a specific subset of those probably would want to ban porn too.

As far as I can tell, the purpose of the law is to push children to use either free VPNs and proxies (which will likely make them less safe using the internet) or to visit less famous porn sites that are too niche to be targetted. So, we're pushing children towards the most dodgy porn sites possible and encouraging people to upload identifying information to the less dodgy porn sites.

This law is not fit for the declared purpose at all.

> Yes. That’s exactly what we believe.

So all minors in the UK have their own banking account and credit card? You know, to pay for the VPN.

Why would they need any of that when free to use VPNs exist?

Why do you think free to use VPNs exist when both servers and bandwidth costs money?

Fact is that they do exist. Whether that meshes with your personal beliefs about economics seems beside the point.

They exist because they are either proxying networks that resell residential IPs (aka your internet connection) ...or because they are harvesting credentials.

The former will now make less sense as a business model, since UK isn't a good location to proxy traffic through anymore.

20 years ago, kids were using proxies and VPNs to get around forum bans. Kids today are most certainly still using VPNs.

I honestly doubt ipad kids are as tech savvy as 90s or 00s kids. Not only that, I'm sure some kids will figure it out. But not all.

You don't have children, I take it.

Are you suggesting kids are not digitally versed and have no capability of searching and learning?

1. A number of apps have made using VPN a 1-click task.

2. Children aren't as well versed with tech as you think, just because they spend a lot of hours in front of a screen.

2. Yeah, I am regularly irritated by old chestnut of “kids are tech geniuses unlike the helpless adults”. With few exceptions, they think WiFi/the Web/The Internet are the same thing and have no clue how any of it works deeper than the UI (just like most adults). In the UK at least, our “progressive” government shifted the focus in the late 90s from teaching basic CS concepts to using Microsoft Office applications. I hope it is slightly better now.

Operate one? You mean download an app and switch the VPN to "on"?

relevant Dilbert: https://www.flubu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wpid-p...

You believe 77% of Pornhub UK visitors are children?

Come on. Get out of your bubble and go touch grass. There are more restrictive countries than UK/EU/US will become in visible future. And customer-level censorship circumvention technologies have gone so far that most services are just one-button apps. And the children who can't press one button usually just don't have a phone.

Do you think children are a significant portion of the porn traffic?