[habosa]

People don’t realize how invasive the UK govt is when it comes to internet monitoring.

Today if you try to access adult content on a UK mobile device you get blocked by age verification. You have to call your mobile provider and prove your age (it’s a once-per-contract thing). One of the ways you can prove your age is with a credit card. But I imagine it’s a large deterrent because not many people want to call Vodafone and ask permission to look at pornography. They’d probably just rather get a VPN.

[mellosouls]

But I imagine it’s a large deterrent because not many people want to call Vodafone and ask permission to look at pornography.

True, and particularly galling when the content you want to look at is not porn but (say) the internet archive or opinion sites that weenies in the provider have deemed offensive.

[Wildgoose]

I've had this happen when wanting to view US News Sites in the UK. Yes, they may well show photos of violence and wars. Sadly, this is still valid news.

But the verification process wanted my Driving License number, which I gave repeatedly, but which it never accepted.

I scrapped that mobile contract ("Three") as useless.

[nindalf]

TIL why the internet archive wouldn’t load for me sometimes. I am so grateful for having being protected from the evils of the internet.

[toyg]

> not many people want to call Vodafone

No need to call, it's a switch in their app or website. It's the same for pretty much any provider.

The annoying part is that the switch tends to reset fairly often.

[d13]

I’ve come to the realization I really should be using a VPN, for so many reasons. I really know nothing much them - any recommendations?

[rococode]

Mullvad seems to be the most popular recommendation on HN nowadays. A couple recent threads:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28551960

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29903695

I've been using them for a while, very happy with it so far. Stable connection and high speeds - good enough that I often forget I have it on - and a nice selection of locations.

They even accept cash! Each account is just an ID so you can mail your account number and some money to them and payment will be processed.

Mozilla VPN also uses Mullvad's servers behind the scenes.

[ketanip]

Open VPN on Digital Ocean Marketplace: https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/openvpn-access-ser...

Vultr ( Cheapest $2.5/Month): https://www.vultr.com/marketplace/apps/openvpn Linode: https://www.linode.com/marketplace/apps/linode/openvpn/ Hetzern, or any other cheap VPS provider as your are not storing any data on it anyways so even it dies or corrupts it shouldn't be a problem.

Open VPN has a clients for every major platform: https://openvpn.net/vpn-client/

Make sure do your research about Open VPN and VPS before using any of it.

[osivertsson]

At this point one must assume that all traffic is monitored and stored, maybe it is or maybe it is not, but assume so. At least all metadata is stored for some time.

Using a VPN moves the point where this occurs and may obfuscate some things, but also realize that many VPNs are probably in some form associated with nation-states and therefore makes their job easier.

[toyg]

It depends on what your threat model is.

For example, my VPN is based in Thailand. For various legal reasons, it's very unlikely anything obtained by a nation-state actor in Thailand will be used for trivial stuff like, say, enforcing copyright legislation against individual consumers. Defense lawyers / barristers would have a field day. If you are planning terrorist acts, on the other hand...

[bambataa]

I’ve been using Proton VPN with no major issues. Would be interesting to know what others here think of them.

[austhrow743]

Depending on your reasons, a seedbox that comes with built in vpn capabilities out of the box could be an option.

I pay €5/month to ultracc for a server I can torrent with. It just happens to come with a vpn installed as a bonus.

Mullvad is the same cost for just a vpn. I'm sure it's better in many ways that people will list below but for the purposes of getting around government internet blocks where you're not then expecting g men to kick in your door for getting around them, openvpn installed on whatever random server works fine.

[raspyberr]

To those in this thread saying it's just a toggle, have you actually tried the toggle? On giffgaff, for example, if you press the toggle it then asks you for your Driving License or Passport.

[shapefrog]

Porn and gambling (and possibly more - we filter and block 18+ sites, as classified by the BBFC British Board of Film Classification) is blocked on mobile data connections - as far as I can recall this has been the situation since the turn of the century.

In effect, this proposal already exists for mobile data connections. Add this to what is enabled by the snoopers charter, and the use of this information accross governement and it is a pretty grim state.

[theclaw]

This triggered for me when trying to download a podcast from Hardcore Gaming 101. The detection is clearly very accurate and good. I had no shame disabling it.

[matthewmacleod]

This is not true – AFAIK literally every major mobile provide offers this as a simple on-off toggle in their app or on their account management site.

[habosa]

In my case I had to call. Maybe because I am not on a contract.

[chunkyguy]

What is so wrong about watching porn?

I accidentally saw some pornography when I wasn't sexually active. I had no clue what was I looking at. I found it to be disgusting, like those extreme cancer photos, and didn't watch it again until many years later.

[retrac98]

This isn’t quite right. The age verification is enforced on mobile networks, not devices.