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Does that mean that VPN providers now need identification before you can open an account?
by retired 9mo ago
Does that mean that VPN providers now need identification before you can open an account?
- ASalazarMX 9mo agoBut think of the children! That it has its own Wikipedia page is a sign of the abuse of this argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children
- victor9000 9mo agoThis is the real intent
- krisbolton 9mo agoNo. This a motion within one house of Parliament and hasn't become law, nor is there any guarantee it will be. It's something to be aware of.
- armada651 9mo agoIf this becomes law, then yes. But then people will turn to VPS providers instead and set up their own VPNs, which will then prompt a law to demand age verification before renting any server. I wonder how far they're willing to go down this rabbit hole.
- gjsman-1000 9mo agoNot necessarily - how is a kid paying for a VPS server? A personal debit card (which requires ID verification anyway, and likely has their parents able to see activity)? A personal credit card (which definitely requires ID + 18+)? Stealing their parents' card (works for like 5 days)? Does the VPS company block VPN ports without verification, similar to how most companies handle email? Do you think VPS services have any interest, at all, in an underage clientele? The proposed law is plenty effective - saying otherwise is like saying kids can bypass age verification at the knife shop or alcohol store by using eBay. No sane mind says that age verification is therefore useless.
- whatshisface 9mo agoIf having a credit card and the ability to make purchases was good enough as an ID system, they could have simply made it the law instead of requiring tech companies to collect those sweet, sweet personal ID document photos.
- gjsman-1000 9mo agoThe UK law doesn't say you have to use ID photos, that's porn companies knowing that charging even £1 a visit would be devastating to the business. Credit card verification is a completely legal method in the UK.
- whatshisface 9mo agoThey can check for credit cards without requiring any payment. Are you sure that's sufficient given these vaguely worded laws? If so many HN readers could solve the whole problem by making websites which issued digital signatures of random numbers to anyone who can support a £0.01 debit which is then immediately reversed.
- gjsman-1000 9mo agoThe problem is porn companies know full well nobody, nobody, wants that on their credit card statement. Kinda weird that something supposedly as natural as rain needs such levels of privacy; the hypocrisy is notable (if it's so natural and so many people do it, own it).
- whatshisface 9mo agoThey can have whatshisface's digital certificates, Inc. on their statements.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- landl0rd 9mo agoYou're implying pervasive KYC and tying everything to your real-life identity is some unfortunate side-effect rather than a deliberate end. I have contempt for people who pass policies such as these but I do not think them foolish; they are likely aware of what will happen.
- bigbadfeline 9mo agoThe people who pass the policies may not know, but the people who formulate and drive the policies know for sure. The Window of Overton is fundamental to today's political environment, more than any other time in history.
- ratelimitsteve 9mo agothe purpose of a system is what it does, not what it purports to do. doubly so, if it does what it purports to do poorly but does something else very well. this system purports to protect children from adult content online but what it does is offer a legal justification for eliminating any and all anonymity.
- gruez 9mo ago>If this becomes law, then yes. Or they just operate outside of UK jurisdiction, in which case they can politely decline. Any executives/directors of said company might be liable to arrest if they decide to vacation in uk, though.
- HDThoreaun 9mo agoThe UK already has ISP's blocking sites. Anyone that ignores the law will be blocked, will be interesting to see what happens if they end up blocking one of the cloud megascalers.
- anonym29 9mo agoHilarious that they think they can prevent motivated people from accessing information using technical measures. China has been working on this for decades. It's a lost battle. Shadowsocks, V2Ray, xray; protocols like vmess, vless, trojan, etc. The British government, for all their effort (London has a higher geographic density of CCTV than Beijing) is wasting their time competing for the gold medal at International Totalitarianism Olympics, even the the world's current undisputed champion is losing the internet censorship battle, and always has. Central planning doesn't work and it never has. That includes central planning of what your citizens are allowed to see, hear, think, and feel.
- digiown 9mo agoDepends on the how you formulate the goal in the totalitarianism olympics. The goal of totalitarian regimes is not really to completely prevent the flow of information to motivated people. It simply needs to raise the motivation bar high enough so that all but the select few is fed only government-approved propaganda. The few that retain access is tolerated as long as they don't raise a stink. In this view, the efforts of China or Iran is fairly successful. The UK has a different flavor of authoritarianism centered on surveillance to (ineffectively) improve "safety", and general paternalism at all levels. It doesn't really intend to prevent the flow of information all that much.
- gnarlouse 9mo agoAge verification to wake up in the morning, age verification to breathe air, age verification to use the restroom, age verification t...
- rustyhancock 9mo agoYou got a Loicense for that?
- gnarlouse 9mo ago..o ask for a license, age ve...
- dlisboa 9mo agoAll of this would easily be solved by just banning social media. Nothing will convince me they are a net-positive to society.
- retired 9mo agoAt the risk of doing a "you participate in society", would that include HN?
- direwolf20 9mo agoThat depends if it's social media.
- eikenberry 9mo agoI don't think social media needs to be banned, but maybe using complex algorithms to drive attention should be. Even Facebook was pretty good back when its feed was a simple, chronological display of all your friends posts and nothing else. It went down the tubes as they moved away from that.
- Fr0styMatt88 9mo agoPut together, it’s likely most people’s friends wouldn’t produce enough content to drive engagement, at least in ‘public’ social media like Facebook. I remember this phenomenon back when Facebook was less algorithmic — some days there’d just be no new content at all. Especially I’m guessing if you limit adding friends to actually just the people you’d be happy to grab lunch with.
- munksbeer 9mo agoI wouldn't ban social media. Here in the UK we require cigarette suppliers to advertise the dangers of smoking on every package. I'd mandate that every social media platform is required to advertise the dangers on every page, and also give a very visible option to reveal the workings of the algorithm that is feeding you the pages.
- bigbadfeline 9mo ago
- brightball 9mo agoWatching laws like this play out in real time adds some color to the other discussion about software in Europe right now. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668#46769847 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668#46769847
- krunck 9mo agoAlso VPS services because "SSH -D".
- whynotmaybe 9mo agoHow would this work with a VPN outside of UK that doesn't do it ? Will it be blocked?
- yakbarber 9mo agoyou pay them, isn't that already enough to identify any non-fraudulent account is needed?