Login
You're viewing the lewacki.space public feed.
  • Neil Brownneil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
    Jun 15, 2026, 8:33 PM

    A random thought.

    Let's suppose that this daft proposed UK social media ban for children, and perhaps age verification for everyone, is coming in 6-12 months.

    Some parents will want their children to still enjoy online social lives, without either child or parent giving up their privacy. Same for child-free adults, who will be swept up in this.

    I wonder what tangible steps such people could do now, to mitigate if not remove this coming risk.

    Downloading from YouTube to build a local archive?

    Looking at local gaming servers, to share with friends but not the public?

    Small, controlled, social media instances which might be in scope but may not be the subject of enforcement?

    (Changing the status quo and bringing in UBI, educating people about changing the law to address harmful functionality, not child users etc.)

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0

Replies

  • Neil Brownneil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
    Jun 15, 2026, 8:39 PM

    Encourage more friends to blog / self-publish, rather than just post on social media?

    A local copy of Wikipedia (which might get exempted, because bad publicity if not) and other resources?

    Potentially - although perhaps short term - looking at total or selective network level traffic routing via VPNs?

    (Obviously none of these things help less technical families, but I am posting this in the fediverse, so...)

    💬 0🔄 3⭐ 4
  • Neil Brownneil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
    Jun 15, 2026, 8:46 PM

    I am sure that there would be all sorts of fun to be had with a solar-powered, low-power, server, with Wi-Fi and some storage

    Local shared computing resources, available wirelessly, but not via the Internet. I last saw this as the "LibraryBox" project.

    Perhaps time to look again into mesh networking too.

    💬 0🔄 1⭐ 3
  • Neil Brownneil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
    Jun 15, 2026, 8:48 PM

    Making more services available in .onion space?

    No need for a static IP or a domain name, multiple different services and .onions on the same small box, etc.

    Tor Browser is available readily for many platforms.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • tiddy rooseveltbabe@glitterkitten.co.uk
    Jun 15, 2026, 8:52 PM

    @neil In terms of easily accessible options, I'll be recommending VPN services for now. The barrier for entry is low in terms of technical ability, and it isn't too tough to explain.

    How long before we're expected to hand over IDs for that though remains to be seen, they've already mentioned a plan to address it as part of all of this.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Steven Reedsrtcd424@mas.to
    Jun 15, 2026, 9:47 PM

    @babe @neil It would be interesting to see if Mullvad caved in on that - they've been pretty sturdy in their opposition to ukgov so far. They also take crypto (*spit*) payments, including XMR, so tracing that back to the UK should be impossible.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0