UK Mobile ISP Blocks VPN, Citing Access To Porn 195
New submitter santosh.k83 writes with this snippet: "TorrentFreak has learned that VPN provider iPredator is already blocked under the 'adult filter' of some, if not all, mobile providers. TorrentFreak has seen communication between the mobile provider GiffGaff and iPredator which makes it clear that the VPN's website is blocked because it allows kids to bypass the age restrictions. Based on the above it is safe to say that censorship is a slippery slope, especially without any oversight. VPNs are used for numerous purposes and bypassing age restrictions is certainly not the most popular one. If this holds up then proxy services and even Google's cache may soon be banned under the same guise."
I thought the "point" of the filter... (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought the "point" of the filter was to make access to pornographic content opt-in? Wouldn't using a VPN like that just imply you're opting in?
Re:You can switch it off. (Score:4, Interesting)
While I agree with you in principle, and 100% oppose attempts to censor the net by anyone, for any reason... I strongly suspect that the vast majority of people who would use a VPN in the first place know all about "Hadrian's Firewall" and that they can opt out of it (for now).
That said - Seriously Cameron, WTF? Yes, the internet makes porn easier to get to than ever before; don't act all stuffy about the idea of kids seeing it, however, when we old-timers made due juuust fine with our dads' stash of Playboys, and turned out well enough.
/ Started "reading it for the articles" sometime around age 7.
methods to bypass this? (Score:3, Interesting)
Living in South Korea (not North Korea, but the actual democractic South), and they're censoring stuff like crazy, and not just porn. Websites like Fark.com can't be accessed at the PC rooms, and I assume that's only going to get worse. If they follow suit with the UK and eliminate access to VPN (the current way to deal with the censoring), what are the ways to deal with this?
(PS: I'm not technologically literate -- it was a real coup just to get VPN working in the first place.)
Re:Politicians are retarded (Score:4, Interesting)
I survived the porn without these 'protections' (Score:5, Interesting)
Growing up in the 1990s I hit puberty right around the time the Internet exploded. I'm first hand evidence that *heavy use of pornography* is not indicative of anything harmful. I started masturbating to really creepy stuff at about 11 too. Creepy has good side effects for some people and there is nothing wrong with that. If anything it probably kept me sane in a world that shuns any sexual deviations.
On the outside I probably didn't seem that different. I had numerous short 'sexual' relationships. However without pornography I would have had a very depressing 'childhood'. I knew from a very early age (after puberty) that there was a near zero percent change I'd ever find a compatible mate and for 17 years I was alone. I gave up dating before a I even really started despite a dozen or so relationships over the years. Statistically there was a near zero chance of finding someone with sufficiently similar tastes (this is after you take into account the Internet and knowledge of how to use a search engine).
One day though I came across someone in the most unlikely of places whom I found interesting. Both sexually attractive (rarity for me) AND with near-identical interests. At first I didn't do anything as it was statistically unlikely they would be in the same boat as me. After 4 days or so I decided to contact them anyway. I took chances occasionally over the years-always being turned down. Turns out he was interested in me as well and he too had an uncommon sexual orientation. We did some fast dating over less than a week (real world) and after a month and 300 miles later he turned his whole life upside down for me. We're now inseparable.
And guess what else- I'm a very important and respectable figure. I'm the CEO of a startup and growing corporation. The only thing that has ever been a real problem for me is other peoples perception of my sexual orientation. Something I've had no choice but to keep quiet about. Everybody has a screwed up view of the world. The media and others have scapegoated people like myself and put forth a negative undeserved stereotype that gives the perception of danger. In reality you can make any group out to be a threat given you pick out crazies from within that group and then use the right communication, of biased words, repeatedly, in a continuous stream of negative shocking propaganda over decades of time.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You can switch it off. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have been corresponding with my MP about this and in her last letter she indicated that circumventing Cameron's porn filter would become illegal. I asked her for urgent clarification of this point as it would appear to outlaw many vital technologies, including VPNs.
I just hope it was a mistake on her part, otherwise privacy will be criminalized.