I’m looking forward to a statement from either Ofcom or DSIT welcoming the protection of children in Russia:

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/age-verification-could-soon-land-in-russia-putting-already-precarious-internet-freedoms-on-the-line

…the article is a good read, not least for pointing to what will likely next happen to VPNs in the West:

Motivated by their concerns, people in the UK and the US have flocked to the best VPN apps as a way to bypass mandatory age checks – pushing lawmakers in Michigan and Wisconsin to consider VPN blocking obligations in their age verification proposals.

The Kremlin is already in an ongoing battle to crack down on VPN usage across the country, with a law passed in March 2024 that even criminalizes the spread of information about how to circumvent internet restrictions.

While their use isn’t completely banned, ever-sophisticated VPN blocking techniques mean that many services may get blocked or throttled.

Now, a law against ‘extremist’ content search passed last July also makes using a VPN to access this content a crime as an aggravating factor.

“For people in the West, VPNs are a short-term escape from the law. For people in Russia, VPNs are a true tool for civil protest,” said Darbinyan, pointing out that Roskomnadzor received about $1 billion at the beginning of the year to fight VPNs.

It is then only fair to believe that an age-gated and de-anonymized internet in Russia will come hand in hand with a fresh new crackdown on circumvention tools.

Yet, “This war has already begun,” said Darbinyan. “A separate initiative to verify age won’t make matters worse. Russian censorship has become very aggressive even without this.”