this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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Prominent backbench MP Sarah Champion launched a campaign against VPNs previously, saying: “My new clause 54 would require the Secretary of State to publish, within six months of the Bill’s passage, a report on the effect of VPN use on Ofcom’s ability to enforce the requirements under clause 112.

"If VPNs cause significant issues, the Government must identify those issues and find solutions, rather than avoiding difficult problems.” And the Labour Party said there were “gaps” in the bill that needed to be amended.

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[–] KonnaPerkele@sopuli.xyz 230 points 1 day ago (5 children)

This kinda proves that it was never about the children. How many children have know how and the means to buy a VPN subscription?

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Were you never a child? I formatted my family pc and reinstalled windows xp in 5th grade, and used a proxy to circumvent the schools online filter in 7th grade.

Children are not as stupid as you seem to think

VPNs also accept many anonymous payment methods that happen to be easily accessible to children, like gift cards. And free VPNs exist

[–] KonnaPerkele@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago

Where there is a will there is a way, I guess.

Still, a possible ban on VPNs affects way bigger group of business and adult users than the number of tech savvy kids.

Where should the line be drawn? How much rights should everyone have to give up so that little techie Billy can’t hack his way to see some titties?

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Still an important part. Free VPNs that spy on you are a thing, but work

[–] flyingsquirrel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ProtonVPN has a free tier as well and it's legit AFAIK.

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 4 points 1 day ago

One of the rare ones

[–] themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A lot more than you know, I knew how to use it since middle school.

And if they don't know they will use Reddit to find out how to access the sites:

https://reddit.adminforge.de/r/teenagers/comments/tv70x0/do_yall_know_a_good_vpn/?

https://redlib.baczek.me/r/teenagers/comments/1m7bp6b/turns_out_its_comically_easy_to_bypass_reddits/?

Don't underestimate kids.

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago

All it takes is one big brother/sister that knows how to access a free or paid VPN and their 5 year old little sibling and all their friends will have it also. Despite the difficulty teaching them math or history, they DO learn very quickly and are fast to figure out new things that interest them.

Do you know what's smarter and more talented the the UK government?

14, 402, 544 kids............

[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

I started using a VPN after my friends/classmates told me about them in my Sophomore year of HS, mostly to get around the Wifi banning us from accessing certain apps (social media). Now, like all the other dumb kids, I used whatever they recommended, which was some shitty "Free" VPN that was probably stalking my data. But by Senior year, I smartened up and learned about online privacy and got myself a Proton VPN subscription after using the free version for a bit.

So yeah, I could totally believe middle-school and up are using VPNs, cause that's what we literally did.