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Have we reached breaking point yet?

Yesterday I wrote about plans in the UK to force YouTube to prioritize "approved" media sources over regular creators when serving up suggestions or search results to viewers.

Today I read that they're also planning to age-gate VPN services. This would require VPN companies to obtain proof of age before signing up customers -- because some of those may be under-16-year-olds attempting to sidestep the age-gating now placed on social media sites.

In Australia, the government is in the process of doubling the fines associated with under-age access to social media because they've discovered that four out of five underaged users are flouting the new rules.

The UK government's Ofcom regulator has levied the operators of the 4Chan site a fine of over half a million quid for violating the "Online Safety Act" -- aka, the age-gating of social media sites.

Since 4Chan has no phsyical presence in the UK and operates outside the jurisdiction of UK authorites, the owners of that site responded by sending Ofcomm a picture of a hamster.

Classic and so funny.

Meanwhile, a law-change that would require all 3D printer manufacturers to equip their consumer-grade products with technology to prevent the printing of certain types of items (starting with gun parts), is slowly edging closer to being signed into effect.

Both NY State and California State legislators are intending to impose this on 3D printer companies and if/when it becomes law, it will be illegal to sell a non-compliant 3D printer in those states.

Of course existing printers will be grandfathered and there's absolutely nothing to stop anyone from just driving to a neighbouring state to buy an "unencumbered" printer then driving back and using it.

What we're seeing in all this is an astounding level of arrogance, stupidity and ignorance on the part of "the powers that be".

Firstly, they don't understand how the internet works and how resistant it is to any kind of censorship -- be it based on age, location or content type, as the Australian situation currently proves beyond any doubt.

Likewise, all Ofcom in the UK can do is cry in their beer that the naughty boys at 4Chan aren't paying the fine they've hit them with. There's just no way they can collect that half a million quid so it's not really going to have any effect at all, is it?

I guess Ofcom could block 4Chan at a DNS or IP level but then perhaps the public would really start to become aware of the Orwellian nature of these moves. Besides which, it'd be a very simple job to purchase access to an offshore VPN and sidestep such a block.

Watching these idiotic bureaucrats trying to nail jelly to a tree is entertaining but ultimately frustrating. Let's face it, there are far more important issues in the world that really need addressing and so long as they're distracted by these silly agendas to censor, restrict and control the internet, those really important issues go unaddressed.

There are rumours going around that the UK may try to ban the X (formerly Twitter) platform soon because people are publishing some embarrassing material there (such as the latest arrest of an assault victim while his attackers were allowed to walk away). I'd love to see them try this because I suspect that Elon Musk might offer a heavily discounted StarLink service to the UK in that case and since that internet service is broadcast from low earth orbit, Ofcom would have no way at all to block X or any other site for those who connect through it.

In any battle between politicians and the tech-savy folk of the world, politicians are always going to lose so why don't they stop wasting public money and get on with the things they were elected to do?

At some stage, if these restrictions, controls and censorship continue to be rolled out, I suspect the general public will rise up and make it very clear to their political overlords that they only hold power on the consent of that public. Consent can be withdrawn either at the next election -- or before then, if things get too bad.

We live in interesting times and those times are getting more interesting by the day.

Carpe Diem folks!

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