According to the article, Ofcom are encouraging "parents to block or control VPN usage by their children to keep them from dodging the age checkers."

This might be stupidest advice I've ever heard. If parents aren't willing to block or control access to porn sites, there's even less chance of them blocking or controlling VPN usage. But if nothing else, it does show up this law for the nonsense that it is.

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cdrini 3 days ago | parent [-]

Controlling VPN seems much easier, no? Since you have to pay for a VPN service, and I imagine most kids don't have a credit card to make arbitrary purchases independently, so it would have to bubble up to a parent.

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vidarh 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

The fact that you think you need to pay for a VPN service is a good illustration of the problem with this.

There's a plethora of free VPN services operating outside the reach of UK authorities.

My sons friend circle all figured out how to use free VPN's at around 8-9 to bypass bans on gaming servers.

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JetSetIlly 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

That's assuming the child is smart enough to only use a paid-for VPN. I can foresee a lot of children being suckered into using a dodgy VPN.

	▲	kbelder 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Suckered? I'd describe it more as 'pushed'.