Yesterday I was out and about, having to use mobile data. Suddenly, Jerboa reported a certificate error wile browsing feddit.de. I figured it was just a glitch, but the error persisted. Tried accessing it via browser on mobile and suddenly I’m getting some Vodafone gateway telling me I need to unlock 18+ content…WTF? I’m not even on Vodafone, so presumably my phone was data-roaming. Accessing Reddit was, naturally, no problem. I’d love to know how many orders of magnitude more porn there is on Reddit than on Feddit lol…but feddit is blocked??
Anyway, I swiftly put my VPN on my phone and it’s no longer an issue. Very bizarre to see this, though. Has anyone else encountered it?
The default is for 18+ content to be restricted by UK mobile networks, you will have to contact your network customer service and ask them to remove the restrictions.
Why was Reddit allowed then? And it’s even stranger that this was a Vodafone gateway, when I’m not on Vodafone. When I checked which network I was on, it did not even seem to be Vodafone in my phone settings. Anyway, VPNs solve that problem. Seems like the “18+” content policy is applied arbitrarily.
Yeah, it’s implemented very poorly, especially since as you have discovered, VPN’s completely bypass it and sites like reddit are “acceptable” apparently.
Yup, as per usual, it’s just a sort of loose guideline, badly implemented. Which, IMO, is worse, as it will make less technically inclined parents think their children are ‘safe’ (whatever that means and from what…I don’t know), but really, those kids are getting around it in a heartbeat.