The Tech Dirt story conflates two things. 1) their own experiment that proved no age check applied behind a vpn 2) the astronomical rise in UK originated visits to adults-only sites from VPN and derived a statement of a third thing: this means "more kids" are bypassing and accessing sketchy sites.
In simple arithmetic terms yes: more kids are now probably using VPN. In equally simple absolute terms, probably less kids overall are now accessing sketchy sites because many kids won't do this, and there is a problem latent here for both sides: the number of under-age visitors is an unknown. It's an estimate.
I don't think techdirt did themselves any favours in this story. It doesn't make me think the UK government will reverse course, or that they will see this as a "failure" any more than kids lying about their age to get smokes and booze makes the government stop applying age rules over the counter in dodgy shops.
ggm•6h ago
In simple arithmetic terms yes: more kids are now probably using VPN. In equally simple absolute terms, probably less kids overall are now accessing sketchy sites because many kids won't do this, and there is a problem latent here for both sides: the number of under-age visitors is an unknown. It's an estimate.
I don't think techdirt did themselves any favours in this story. It doesn't make me think the UK government will reverse course, or that they will see this as a "failure" any more than kids lying about their age to get smokes and booze makes the government stop applying age rules over the counter in dodgy shops.