…as if they didn’t already know how to use VPNs.

Fucking something over and then running away whilst blaming the middlemen you appointed is *not* considered success, unless you’re a politician.

Compare and contrast the following quotes:

---

“No one a year ago believed that you could redesign the digital world so it didn’t splurge self-harm, suicide and pornography at a particular demographic […] Guess what? We can.”

vs:

“Do not assume that every VPN that has been downloaded is a child trying to get around [age controls],” said Kidron. “Many of them are adults trying to preserve their freedom . . . to access that [material] in private.” Even if children were using VPNs, that would count as an improvement over the previous status quo where it had become “normal to offer pornography in the playground”, she said. Before the new rules there was no “hurdle” to do so, with many children encountering explicit material on social media without going looking for it, she added. “It’s really an important part of childhood to transgress,” said Kidron. “[Using a VPN] is like a child climbing out the window at night when you’ve grounded them . . . They know what they’re doing.”

Clearly the Baroness has never heard of “behind the bike sheds”, and I find her appeals to (paraphrase) “trust the transgressions of the kids” to now be massively ironic.

Also, she has knives out for Ofcom for not doing what she planned would happen – because what she planned was both unrealistic and misinformed – and instead they have done what she asked for:

But Kidron urged regulator Ofcom to take privacy more seriously as it enforced age verification, warning that the issue would “become a culture war if not done properly”. The watchdog had become “too close to the tech sector” and “should have been tougher about privacy” when it proposed systems that platforms could use to ensure that users are over 18 when accessing adult content, she added. […] Kidron said many of the complaints over age checks could have been avoided if Ofcom had been stricter in its requirements for how the providers of verification services handle personal data.

“They say vaguely it should be privacy preserving but they don’t really deal with that properly,” she said. “The government can be tough about privacy and the tech companies can choose it?.?.?.?this equation that age assurance must be a data grab is just not true.” 

As if Ofcom was some sort of “privacy regulator” – hot tip, it’s not. The nearest thing we have in that space is the Information Commissioner, with a sprinkling of the IPT and (arguably) Parliament & the Supreme Court.

FT: “Child safety campaigner hails early impact of Online Safety Act, Peer says legislation’s success should ‘give us confidence’ to go further”:

https://www.ft.com/content/47e4f4db-42f9-4611-b440-2d92c709db1c archived at: https://archive.ph/0qj2p