James BakerThe House of Lords just voted to ban VPNs for children - https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/lords/division/3503 #VPN #onlinesafety
craignicol@JamesBaker now get them all to explain what a VPN is, and how to identify children without penalising legitimate use
@craignicol It isn’t even clear what’s in scope really. The wording is VPN services not creating your own VPN.
Chris Pitts@craignicol @JamesBaker Magical thinking.
@thirstybear @JamesBaker I can perfectly understand Charles Babbage's frustration with politicians. Some things never change 😬
furicleOf course, selling a dumbed down VPN just to market to young people is ridiculous. Children deserve full strength VPNs!
Oh, wait, did you mean...
RolloTreadway@JamesBaker Which is purely advisory.
Doesn't mean it won't eventually happen, but let's try to get this right, please: the Lords does not have any power to unilaterally alter a Bill. The Commons will vote on it later.
markus@JamesBaker So I cannot provide my child with VPN access to our home network anymore, do I read that right?
GeofCoxThis discussion of online safety in the UK seems to be focused entirely on the need to protect children - which I guess almost everybody agrees with.
There seems to be almost no discussion on the implied safety and privacy issues around enforcing age/identity checks on everyone, whether this data can be stored safely, who pays for it, policing the use of VPNs, etc...
It seems it's another bit of performative political posturing, rather than sensible, workable legislation.
The Vampire Fish Queen@GeofCox @markus @JamesBaker Sounds like the Online Safety Act... And Ofcom think it has it hard now...
Karl DysonI spy even more kids using devices that are logged in to accounts in the name of $parent instead of with accounts of their own...
MostlyTato@JamesBaker
Or more accurately, to require age verification to use a VPN service to circumvent ID requirements.
Digital ID cards may not now be mandatory but that won't stop them demanding ID more and more for internet use.
And I'm sure MPs will be exempt. They wouldn't want their ISPs tracking their tractor porn after all.
Or more accurately, to require age verification to use a VPN service to circumvent ID requirements.
Digital ID cards may not now be mandatory but that won't stop them demanding ID more and more for internet use.
And I'm sure MPs will be exempt. They wouldn't want their ISPs tracking their tractor porn after all.
@JamesBaker They’re gonna freak when they hear about ssh tunnelling…
@JamesBaker apropos nothing
George Baily@JamesBaker so VPNs will require age verification if the session is from a UK Geo IP address, which users can bypass with a VPN
@JamesBaker Want to point out if all Lib Dems lords had voted to stop it, it would not have passed...
Feral Fury 🏴☠️ 🏳️🌈 🫂🔞@JamesBaker Which of course will be interpreted to mean VPN providers must do age verification. A nice backdoor into legislating VPNs for everyone.
Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸)@JamesBaker Now lets see them enforce it.
Fernsby@JamesBaker A full ban on VPNs or even restrictions seems very authoritarian.
Not many countries even do have said restrictions nor children can afford said technologies as they usually require a monthly subscription.
Question on how this is actually enforced is still in the air and would it cover any method of tunneling your internet connection in another country such as residental proxies or even the Tor network?
Missingtale@JamesBaker Mastodon has done it again, I've written to my MP again....
@misingtale Do they reply? Mine never does!
@JamesBaker nothing more than a stock your opinions are noted but politics is difficult type answer from one of their team.