This is actually a great time to launch a product for 13-18 year olds who'll be looking for something else to do on their phones during the 6 hours they used to spend watching porn.

I'm thinking of an AI tool that automatically dresses people in porn videos, turning them into 12+ content. The Pro+ plan could even replace the moaning with actual dialogue. That way they can keep watching their favourite movies without needing to verify their age or use a VPN.

The only thing I need for VCs to invest is to put the term "10x" on my website.

"10x fewer moans and 10x more dialogue"

Now you will need an ID check for using a VPN service, and it won't stop the children, so next you'll need an ID check to access your device, face ID will become mandatory except every access will be logged and sent to a Government Compliant Service® for possible review.

If only parents could start parenting, but we know by now this has nothing to do with the children.

This being the UK... Perhaps better to establish The Office of Permission, then ban everything except requesting a permission form the new office... And thus create a whole permission economy, putting the `Great` back in Great Britain... /s

I notice the government spokesperson said that "VPNs are legal tools for adults..." (emphasis mine), thereby giving away the plan somewhat.

Teens talk to each other at school and online. Any attempt to block them will be bypassed faster than I can type this comment. They can and do share porn on Discord and other platforms. Some also stream it inside video games and watch together. Some games have video players in-game most commonly in VR games. No VPN required. Oh and of course they could just hand each other thumb drives with password protected 7-zip files. I suspect governments are going to be playing a futile game of whack-a-mole for some time.

Surely VPN photo ID checks would increase water usage!?!?

Jokes aside, teenagers can be smart at evading censorship. Should a democratic society play a cat and mouse game with a more motivated and more nimble adversary, who will often be smarter too?

Are they not aware that it's something they would have to force on everyone's device? GDPR cookie banners are a good example of poorly executed government meddling, the Online Safety Bill could yet be even more annoying, and we're still learning about the lies and ineptitude seen by the Post Office scandal. Why entertain playing a cat and mouse game like that? I don't think we want to see how invasive government computer meddling can be. People coming up with these ideas need to think really carefully about what the actual results could be once they have gone through committee and started bothering their constituents.

Perhaps more importantly, they should remember 16 year olds are going to be able to vote soon.

At some point I expect the UK government to come and say “stop kids having unapproved opinions” and introduce some more liberticide laws.

Ao sad to see how the uk has fallen from a beacon of freedom to… whatever it is nowadays.