VPN Downloads Surge in UK as New Age-Verification Rules Take Effect

Proton VPN reported a 1,400 percent hourly increase in signups over its baseline Friday — the day the UK's age verification law went into effect. For UK users, "apps with explicit content must now verify visitors' ages via methods such as facial recognition and banking info," notes Mashable: Proton VPN previously documented a 1,000 percent surge in new subscribers in June after Pornhub left France, its second-biggest market, amid the enactment of an age verification law there... A Proton VPN spokesperson told Mashable that it saw an increase in new subscribers right away at midnight Friday, then again at 9 a.m. BST. The company anticipates further surges over the weekend, they added. "This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their privacy," the spokesperson said... Search interest for the term "Proton VPN" also saw a seven-day spike in the UK around 2 a.m. BST Friday, according to a Google Trends chart.
The Financial Times notes that VPN apps "made up half of the top 10 most popular free apps on the UK's App Store for iOS this weekend, according to Apple's rankings." Proton VPN leapfrogged ChatGPT to become the top free app in the UK, according to Apple's daily App Store charts, with similar services from developers Super Unlimited and Nord Security also rising over the weekend... Data from Google Trends also shows a significant increase in search queries for VPNs in the UK this weekend, with up to 10 times more people looking for VPNs at peak times...

"This is what happens when people who haven't got a clue about technology pass legislation," Anthony Rose, a UK-based tech entrepreneur who helped to create BBC iPlayer, the corporation's streaming service, said in a social media post. Rose said it took "less than five minutes to install a VPN" and that British people had become familiar with using them to access the iPlayer outside the UK. "That's the beauty of VPNs. You can be anywhere you like, and anytime a government comes up with stupid legislation like this, you just turn on your VPN and outwit them," he added...

Online platforms found in breach of the new UK rules face penalties of up to £18mn or 10 percent of global turnover, whichever is greater... However, opposition to the new rules has grown in recent days. A petition submitted through the UK parliament website demanding that the Online Safety Act be repealed has attracted more than 270,000 signatures, with the vast majority submitted in the past week. Ministers must respond to a petition, and parliament has to consider its topic for a debate, if signatures surpass 100,000.
X, Reddit and TikTok have also "introduced new 'age assurance' systems and controls for UK users," according to the article. But Mashable summarizes the situation succinctly.

"Initial research shows that VPNs make age verification laws in the U.S. and abroad tricky to enforce in practice."

Good on them

[alvinrod]

Good on them and I hope they realize there are other things than tits and dick that their government doesn't want them to see.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

We know.

Labelling Palestine action as a terrorist group was appalling. Ama now the police seem keen on crashing down on anyone mentioning Palestine at all, and the government assists to be happy to let them.

Can't wait to be rid of Starmer though unfortunately there are worse people waiting in the wings, so careful what you wish for.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

I'm with the govt on that one. I don't want to see dicks either.

Re:

[NewtonsLaw]

Yep, along with the slogan "Only terrorists and CSAM pervs use VPNs".

Sadly, the UK is just one of the first-world countries using "won't someone think of the children" as an excuse for usurping free access to the internet and freedom of speech. Australia's eSafety commissioner has already set the wheels in motion for very similar legislation there and even New Zealand is now seriously considering following along.

Nothing gets a government more excited than the prospect of suppressing dissent and opposition

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Not really. And saying things like "hurty words on the internet" makes you sound like a pillock.

They are locking people up for a long time for non violent protests in the physical world. This has nmoved into giving the police a free pass to harass, arrest and intimidate protestors who cares about certain topics. Even ones who are both non violent and completely non disruptive.

None of that was in service of "think of the children" and last I checked VPNs are legal in the UK, but you know protesting barely i

Re:

[_0x0nyadesu]

You mean the idiots that broke into a military base?

https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]

The slow decline of the UK is hilarious.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

Well, they still have a king. A KING! What do you expect?

Re:

[newcastlejon]

Well, they still have a king. A KING! What do you expect?

A king with infinitely less power than the one in the oval office. Just saying.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

In the UK they've even set up a special police squad to monitor social media for anyone who might be challenging the government narrative

Bollocks. Name it.

and as we've already seen, they're prepared to let violent offenders out of prison early so as to make room for those who have said "hurty words" on the internet.

They're letting prisoners out slightly earlier, i.e. parole after 40% of the full sentence instead of 50%. "They" are doing this because the previous government's actions had left a prison system that only had room for a few hundred more prisoners in the entire fucking country.

Re:

[rta]

let's not so soon forget: from "Thursday April 30 2020, 5.00pm BST, The Times"

Police have fielded nearly 200,000 calls from members of the public snitching on neighbours or reporting other lockdown breaches, it emerged yesterday.

House parties, public loitering and other coronavirus-related concerns are being swiftly reported to police, who have now issued more than 9,000 lockdown fines in England and Wales.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/po... [thetimes.com]

That 1984 was written by a Brit about a future Britain was surprising to me when i found out, but over the decades i understand more why.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

VPN usage requires ID verification.

It might even get worse. Various parts of the UK political establishments has been talking about banning VPNs for a few years now because they can be used to bypass the governments various internet regulations (including age verification). If enough people end up using a VPN to access their p0rn, those proposals might be reintroduced. Exactly how one would block a VPN service from offering service to customers in the UK is not really clear, but I doubt the politicians care about the details.

Re:

[rta]

Well, only a week and a half ago on /. we were talking about the Russian law criminalizing certain searches...
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]

Let me fix that for you

[VaccinesCauseAdults]

“This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their wanking.”

There's gotta be some line about . . .

[YetAnotherDrew]

"age-ian porn" but I just can't find it.

End of anonymity

[RossCWilliams]

This is only one of many steps to eliminating the anonymous internet. The "masks" people of all ages have used to conceal their identity are being taken away one by one.

New Age Verification

[rossdee]

I'm not in the UK, but I do download New Age Music.

We've had this in Florida for awhile

[Powercntrl]

All the complaining about it online turned out to be impotent rage (pardon the pun). As near as I can tell, people just did the damn age checks or signed up for a VPN and that was the end of it.

There's that old joke about if they removed porn from the internet, all that'd be left is a page saying "bring back the porn!" Well, it turns out that the wankers/fappers/gooners/[whatever euphemism the kids are calling it these days] are just a vocal minority and political backlash is negligible.

Re: We've had this in Florida for awhile

[RegistrationIsDumb83]

Its killing the porn sites though. A major one reported that adding mandatory age verification reduced traffic by 90%. Some people use VPN, most people just go elsewhere. The whole point of the legislation is to harm adult sites. And unfortunately legislators worldwide don't care how unpopular it is.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

That's really the important distinction here though - it's about access to free porn.

I'd assume that signing up for a paid account meets the age check requirements, so it would seem the sites are just losing the freeloaders. Sure, that'll eventually bite them in the ass when they can't use free explicit content as a means of attracting new potential customers, but the immediate negative effect on their revenue is probably not that significant.

At any rate, I'd have to wonder how profitable it really is to r

Re:

[nyet]

Not just free. The perception (real or not) of being anonymous. Big difference.

Re:

[nyet]

And you honestly don't understand how loss leaders work?

"such as people uploading content that is underage and/or non-consensual"

ah yes, a concern troll. Never mind.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Not just free. The perception (real or not) of being anonymous. Big difference.

The second you sign up for a paid account you've ceased to be anonymous. These sort of age verification laws don't affect people who have paid access to porn sites.

And you honestly don't understand how loss leaders work?

I specifically did say that free content is mostly used in the context of attracting new paid customers. However, a lot of businesses get by just fine without giving away free samples, so it may not be the end of the world for paid adult sites if the freebies go away.

ah yes, a concern troll.

If hosting unverified user-provided content wasn't a huge legal problem, there

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Ask the mobile gaming industry how they'd feel about losing their "freeloaders", they welcome them with open arms and wish for more. At worst they cost pennies and in reality their value simply isn't the immediate kind that shows up in MBA charts.

Freemium gaming is just weird in that they're trying to find "whales" - people who spend ungodly amounts of money on the game. Their whole business model depends on getting as many copies of their game in front of as many eyeballs as possible, in the hopes that someone has the right mix of addictive personality and pocketbook size that it pays off for them.

Porn is mostly not like that. Yeah, there's purchasable tokens on adult webcam sites, where the entertainers work for "tips" and the site takes a cut o

What pisses me off

[rsilvergun]

Is watching the, don't tell me how to raise my child, crowd screaming for shit like this.

I didn't particularly care if my kid looked at internet porn and they turned out just fine. I also sat them down and made sure they understood how to handle sex so I didn't have to worry about grandchildren coming out of nowhere.

That's how I raised my kid and I don't particularly like my government butting in on that. Never mind the hundreds of other reasons not to allow the government to directly censor the int

Re:

[Powercntrl]

"Think of the children" really was just the excuse. The people who passed these age check laws just have a problem with porn. The actual fallout from it though, wasn't really worth lighting the torches and sharpening the pitch forks over.

"Free" porn sites have mostly gone to shit ever since they realized it's just too much a liability hosting user-provided content. The credit card companies threatened to cut them off permanently, since advertising/sponsorships/etc. alone wasn't enough to remain profitabl

Re:

[nyet]

political backlash is negligible because nobody wants to look bad by admitting they like porn lol.

are you really that naive?

Full disclosure?

[NewtonsLaw]

I demand that UK MPs declare any interests they have in VPN companies. Perhaps the real agenda here is far more personal than we might think and maybe there's many a fortune being made within the halls of power as a result of this new legislation :-)

Average age of VPN downloaders?

[JustLikeToSay]

I can't help thinking it'll be young teenagers installing VPNs while their (grand)parents grapple unsuccessfully with the verification system.

Re: Average age of VPN downloaders?

[OrangeTide]

Only criminals and terrorists would use a VPN. What a horrible time, theyshould try those teenagers as adults.

Who would have thought

[RUs1729]

Stupid lawmakers coming up with legislation that one can trivially work around. Why do people in the US and the UK keep electing morons as their representatives? Surely not all voters in those countries are morons? Or are they?

Re:

[registrations_suck]

Because all the candidates are morons.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

You have to be a moron to run for office.

Just like China

[yog]

Everyone uses VPNs to bypass the Great Wall and get news from the outside world. Sounds like Britain's moving in the same direction. What a sobering thought!