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Given that VPN services typically require a credit card, and credit cards are unlikely to be available to most minors -- or at least provide plausible deniabili

Given that VPN services typically require a credit card, and credit cards are unlikely to be available to most minors -- or at least provide plausible deniability to the providers -- this is probably 100% okay with the porn-banning Utahns.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
The Opera browser has a free VPN built-in. It would be interesting to see data on Opera and Tor browser downloads there in the last week.
- ubermonkey 3y ago
  I had no idea! Yeah, that would definitely be interesting.
- coretx 3y ago
  Opera is no longer Norwegian. It's Chinese these days so that's exchanging one security problem for another.
  - missedthecue 3y ago
    Opera is a private company traded on the norway stock exchange. What do you mean owned by China?
    - plorkyeran 3y ago
      https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737450/000143774922016090/opra20211231_20fa.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737450/000143774922... > We have been a public company since 2018. In 2021, Kunlun, a Chinese public company and our largest investor, increased its ownership stake in us beyond 50%, and as a result we became a consolidated subsidiary of the Kunlun group. [...] As of the date of this annual report, Kunlun, a Chinese public company traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange, indirectly owns 55.60% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. As such, we are a consolidated subsidiary of Kunlun.
- bauruine 3y ago
  Pornhub redirects Tor users to their .onion which has been broken for at least months. If someone has a contact there please tell them to fix it.
seanw444 3y ago
They don't though. A lot of VPN services operate for free. A lot of my classmates in high school used free VPNs to bypass the school internet filters. I wonder how their business continues to operate if their product is free...
- celestialcheese 3y ago
  Hola VPN, one of the largest free ones, is operated by BrightData. They make money with their residential and mobile proxy service. By using Hola, you act as an edge node in what is essentially a legal botnet, and Bright Data charges like $10/gb to clients who want to use it for scraping,etc.
seydor 3y ago
Well there is only one solution: they should require that all porn be paid-for by credit card. Utah will make PH rich to protect their boys
rafark 3y ago
Not really. There are tons of free VPN apps in the AppStore that anyone can download and use. I have a couple that do the trick and I have never used a credit card to use a vpn.
- ubermonkey 3y ago
  I had no idea! I have used VPN services, but not much since I stopped traveling so much. Thanks.
capableweb 3y ago
> Given that VPN services typically require a credit card, and credit cards are unlikely to be available to most minors Easy, even minors can acquire cash and send (international) envelopes, so send cash over to Mullvad together with your account number and you anonymously get access to a VPN.
vidarh 3y ago
My son is 14. He got his first VPN for free several years ago to evade bans on various game servers. Had he not wanted to tell me, he could've easily hid it.
KomoD 3y ago
At what age do people in the US get debit cards? I had one when I was like 12
- LinuxBender 3y ago
  At least in most of the US a minor must have a parent sign for their account and it is a linked account of the parent meaning they can review transactions and set spend limits but there is probably a way around this. Part of this is banking regulation as explained to me by a bank and part of this is that a minor can not legally enter into a binding contract though many companies would have kids think otherwise.
  - livueta 3y ago
    As a kid bootstrapping online funding, I used prepaid debit cards available from many retailers. AFAIK there still isn't any kind of point-of-sale age check, and while some providers who use CC info for age/location verification can filter prepaid cards, VPN providers don't care.
    - LinuxBender 3y ago
      It makes sense. Prepaid cards are not banks and they take very little risk in letting an unverified person get a card, as the card only has the money the person paid for it. They can not overdraft. Adding to that more and more online companies are rejecting said cards, at least the major online stores anyway.
woodruffw 3y ago
I was able to get a debit card at 13 or so without my parents knowing; I'm sure enterprising (read: horny) teenagers in Utah are at least as clever as I was, which wasn't particularly clever. Besides, there are plenty of VPNs that don't require any sort of digital payment. Mullvad somewhat famously accepts cash[1], and they're the whitelabeled service behind a lot of other providers. [1]: https://mullvad.net/en/pricing https://mullvad.net/en/pricing
csomar 3y ago
You are severely underestimating how smart these little things can be if they are determined enough.

UncleOxidant 3y ago

The Opera browser has a free VPN built-in. It would be interesting to see data on Opera and Tor browser downloads there in the last week.

ubermonkey 3y ago
I had no idea! Yeah, that would definitely be interesting.
coretx 3y ago
Opera is no longer Norwegian. It's Chinese these days so that's exchanging one security problem for another.
- missedthecue 3y ago
  Opera is a private company traded on the norway stock exchange. What do you mean owned by China?
  - plorkyeran 3y ago
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737450/000143774922016090/opra20211231_20fa.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737450/000143774922... > We have been a public company since 2018. In 2021, Kunlun, a Chinese public company and our largest investor, increased its ownership stake in us beyond 50%, and as a result we became a consolidated subsidiary of the Kunlun group. [...] As of the date of this annual report, Kunlun, a Chinese public company traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange, indirectly owns 55.60% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. As such, we are a consolidated subsidiary of Kunlun.
bauruine 3y ago
Pornhub redirects Tor users to their .onion which has been broken for at least months. If someone has a contact there please tell them to fix it.

seanw444 3y ago

They don't though. A lot of VPN services operate for free. A lot of my classmates in high school used free VPNs to bypass the school internet filters. I wonder how their business continues to operate if their product is free...

celestialcheese 3y ago
Hola VPN, one of the largest free ones, is operated by BrightData. They make money with their residential and mobile proxy service. By using Hola, you act as an edge node in what is essentially a legal botnet, and Bright Data charges like $10/gb to clients who want to use it for scraping,etc.

seydor 3y ago

Well there is only one solution: they should require that all porn be paid-for by credit card. Utah will make PH rich to protect their boys

rafark 3y ago

Not really. There are tons of free VPN apps in the AppStore that anyone can download and use. I have a couple that do the trick and I have never used a credit card to use a vpn.

ubermonkey 3y ago
I had no idea! I have used VPN services, but not much since I stopped traveling so much. Thanks.

capableweb 3y ago

> Given that VPN services typically require a credit card, and credit cards are unlikely to be available to most minors Easy, even minors can acquire cash and send (international) envelopes, so send cash over to Mullvad together with your account number and you anonymously get access to a VPN.

vidarh 3y ago

My son is 14. He got his first VPN for free several years ago to evade bans on various game servers. Had he not wanted to tell me, he could've easily hid it.

KomoD 3y ago

At what age do people in the US get debit cards? I had one when I was like 12

LinuxBender 3y ago
At least in most of the US a minor must have a parent sign for their account and it is a linked account of the parent meaning they can review transactions and set spend limits but there is probably a way around this. Part of this is banking regulation as explained to me by a bank and part of this is that a minor can not legally enter into a binding contract though many companies would have kids think otherwise.
- livueta 3y ago
  As a kid bootstrapping online funding, I used prepaid debit cards available from many retailers. AFAIK there still isn't any kind of point-of-sale age check, and while some providers who use CC info for age/location verification can filter prepaid cards, VPN providers don't care.
  - LinuxBender 3y ago
    It makes sense. Prepaid cards are not banks and they take very little risk in letting an unverified person get a card, as the card only has the money the person paid for it. They can not overdraft. Adding to that more and more online companies are rejecting said cards, at least the major online stores anyway.

woodruffw 3y ago

I was able to get a debit card at 13 or so without my parents knowing; I'm sure enterprising (read: horny) teenagers in Utah are at least as clever as I was, which wasn't particularly clever. Besides, there are plenty of VPNs that don't require any sort of digital payment. Mullvad somewhat famously accepts cash[1], and they're the whitelabeled service behind a lot of other providers. [1]: https://mullvad.net/en/pricing https://mullvad.net/en/pricing

csomar 3y ago

You are severely underestimating how smart these little things can be if they are determined enough.