this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 54 points 1 day ago (5 children)

If you live in the UK or in another country where porn is being restricted:

  • Talk with friends and family about getting a VPN (everyone says good things about Mullvad VPN, so it's probably one of the best choices)
  • Learn to use the Tor network (it's really easy to start, and unlike popular belief, Tor isn't only for illegal activities)
  • Pressure MPs that didn't vote in favor of the age verification bill by sending emails to them about it so that they fight (or keep fighting) this age verification nonsense.

You don't need to be a porn addict to do these things. In fact, they have started with porn, but they may as well keep going and fight for age verification in other types of content, making access to said content way more difficult. The best thing you can do right now is to learn to fight back.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 17 hours ago

Don’t use tor for porn. Use i2p. You can torrent without breaking shit on i2p.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If you live in the UK or in another country where porn is being restricted: Talk with friends and family

Hmmmmm... Maybe not though

" Help me, stepbro. I can't access PornHub anymore 🥹 "

[–] UxyIVrljPeRl@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Im stuck in age-verification

[–] tankplanker@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

UK is going to be requiring age verification for VPN access. https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-house-of-lords-votes-to-extend-age-verification-to-vpns

Will this mean all VPNs will comply? Obviously not, but the bigger names will either pull out or comply as we seeing with the bigger porn sites.

The next step after this will be criminalization of using a VPN without age verification.

[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait, WHAT? They already voted? I didn't expect that so soon...

[–] tankplanker@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

It was planned from the beginningas the real drivers behind the detail of the legislation, the security services, knew people would use VPNs and those have always been the main target.

Its why the legislation was written in the first place. Most people's identity is already tied to their connection via big tech social media. Its the people who use VPNs they can lose track of.

I would expect this to be a live requirement by the end of the year at the latest.

Just be glad the client side scanning keeps getting rejected thats in the same legislation.

[–] jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Advertising for mullvad harms the peer2peer network. (They blocked port forwarding and won't be bringing it back)

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

How does it harm p2p? I've been downloading and seeding without issue. Genuine question

[–] jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

P2P requires at least 1 person to have open port forwarding. Ideally, everyone has it open on their VPN. The more people start recommending vpns without it, the more torrents as a whole start to die as everyone I inherently becomes a burden on the system.

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

I had no idea. According to what I'm reading, if I switch to IPv6, it would effectively solve the problem? I see that mullvad does support it, but will have to look into the individual containers I'm using, as well as docker itself I guess.
Networking is a nightmare to understand

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Are there any VPNs that didn't? I couldn't really find any, and tbh it's not a massive issue for torrenting. I still upload a fair bit, but obviously not as much as I would be if I had ports open.

[–] jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

Maybe not massive issue for individuals yet, but I guarantee anti piracy orgs love everyone switching to a VPN that inherently weakens the torrent ecosphere.

[–] rav3n@ttrpg.network 5 points 13 hours ago

Private Internet Access and Njalla both allow port forwarding.

Mullvad is heavily shilled, and for some reason no online discussion ever ends on a critical note. Be wary and don't assume the group is always correct.

[–] Coleslaw4145@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

AirVPN allow port forwarding.

I use Mullvad for my day to day devices like my phone and laptop, and AirVPN in my homelab for things like torrenting.

[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fair point. I just assumed most people reading my message wouldn't care much about torrenting, but in this economy where censorship is pretty much happening, port forwarding would definitely be a plus. Do you have better suggestions?

[–] jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

Airvpn or Private internet access seem to be the good options nowadays, MAYBE protonvpn if you can separate the product from the owner, due to the CEO making inflammatory statements on his socials. That's a call you have to make for yourself and your own threat model.

[–] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What VPN(s) would you recommend?

[–] jmf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

PIA (Private Internet Access) seems really good. I am currently finishing up a 2 year discounted Protonvpn subscription but am reevaluating it as a viable option due to recent political posts from the CEO. As far as the service goes it was great though.

[–] rav3n@ttrpg.network -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Here's a free VPN that you can use: https://riseup.net/en/vpn

Try not to assume that there aren't free alternatives to what "the crowd" is constantly herding you to pay for. Do some digging, and you may be surprised by what you come across.

Most of the good stuff is buried underneath mountains of bullshit.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The cost for us to offer RiseupVPN is approximately $60 USD per person per year. If you use the VPN, please consider donating at least this much. Thank you!

That's the same as Mullvad then, or more if you consider that everyone who can afford it should pay for more than their fair share because some can not.