Hey folks, The Australian government is introducing new Draconian internet laws that will force anyone of any age to verify their ID to use the internet.
I know we are not allowed to talk about politics here, which is all good, but this could potently affect the contest if I am not able to log into my Google accounts. I am not sure what will happen for now I will use a VPN if I can.
I refuse to comply with these new over reaching laws. Imagine a time when Australians will have to use a VPN to access Google. Crazy times.
They ban google search on the 29th of December, not sure if that is only search or email, the new rules are not very clear. YouTube gets banned on the 10th, so I might have to verify to access all services, I am not sure.
BLF falls under the age restriction rules.
If you just need a VPN to mask your location, there are a number of low budget options.
I think the best free VPN is Proton VPN Free, but that one won’t work for me because I use a VPN for a different reason.
There always have been and always will be alternatives and workarounds. Google search imho has been garbage for years so honestly not much loss there. Youtube has been acessible by many different frontends for awhile. Myself I use Newpipe on Android all the time, I only actually use youtube apps or browse to youtube dot com if I want to specifically support a content creator. As for mail, the first simple workaround is potentially using a mail client (pop or imap etc.) used Thunderbird for a long time. Most modern mail services allow you to link up a unified inbox.
In the end remember google is a convenience where you are the product, so this gives you a nice reason to start taking control over your internet presence and choose to stop being the product. You’ll benefit by discovering alternatives to google and the major monopolies.
Yea I have Nord VPN I use for a few different things, my router lets me set the VPN access per device so if I want to stream overseas services to my TV I can.
Yea, I don’t use Google too much my default browser is Firefox and DuckDuckgo search, but I might try Brave browser heard good things. Yea I got ublock on here, it’s great no ads on YouTube. My router also has a built-in ad blocker Adguard?, but it’s not as good as uBlock. I think i will set up a Proton mail. I can use Tor for something’s so it’s not a problem as such, but it’s kind of pain as it’s slow.
The UK introduced age verification on sites with (potential) adult content earlier this year- Imgur hosted photos on this forum are no longer visible as (I assume) it’s almost impossible to comply with the UK law and to verify that the users seeing the image on a 3rd party website (e.g BLF) is over 18.
There are of course rumours the UK government want to ban VPNs but this is just speculation and I suspect impossible from a practical standpoint.
I use a range of tools including tailscale and NordVPN regardless of the UK laws - sometimes websites act funny if you’re trying to access the UK version of the site with a “foreign” IP, sometimes I just need to do banking on airport WiFi, sometimes I want to check on the home CCTV. All valid use cases for a VPN.
They have a few amendments where they added search engines, google is a search engine. Google services might be excluded I am not sure. You have to read multiple parts of the bill. Any website that is a forum like Reddit falls under these laws, I think BLF falls under the category of a forum.
Yeh, I use Brave even with The Yoo Toob and don’t see any ads at all.
Had ABP before, but they “detected” that and kept hitting me with those “turn off your adblocker” nastygrams. With Brave, they don’t even know I haven’t seen any ads in ages.
Supposedly, it has BraveVPN or something, built in, but that you have to sign up for. If it’s integrated well, that might get around location restrictions pretty well, too.
What about a private DNS as well? I toyed with putting up a PiHole with alternate DNS, just for the lulz.
The Opera browser has a free VPN built into it. It’s OFF by default, but easy to activate. Works well from the US to hit some overseas sites, but can be slow.
They changed the way it works now, uBlock let’s the adds play in a hidden browser tab when I check task manager it has a bunch of Firefox tabs open but you can’t see them.
I think I will try brave browser, I use my VPN heaps when I am away and using unsecured wifi. I wonder if they could block VPNs.
I don’t know if they could but if anyone could it would be China and they haven’t.
The future belongs to the 12 year olds who are on this site. Some countries have already decided this is a social media site and are preventing children from viewing it. These countries will devolve into 3rd world hell holes while those who allow children to view what they want will go to the stars.
