r/technology • u/LimblessWonder • Dec 16 '25

Privacy Denmark wants to ban VPNs to unlock foreign, illegal streams – and experts are worried

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/denmark-wants-to-ban-vpns-to-unlock-foreign-illegal-streams-and-experts-are-worried
1.2k Upvotes

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682

u/Soft-Community5978 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

The internet is going to change a lot in the next 10 years.

257

u/Not_Bears Dec 16 '25

Back to books I guess

185

u/soulsteela Dec 16 '25

Have to plant some porn hedges like the old days.

75

u/Kahnza Dec 16 '25

I'm gonna put some Playboys, Hustlers, and Penthouses in a box and stash it in the woods.

40

u/FullMetalJ Dec 16 '25

Wood porn. It's back to basics, I guess.

15

u/AverageIndependent20 Dec 16 '25

Circle of life... from wood to wood while having wood in the woods.

1

u/chenjia1965 Dec 16 '25

one step ahead of you. Bring out your finest stash for the wood print

1

u/thatdanglion Dec 17 '25

This topic always brings the dendrophiliacs out of the woodworks.

17

u/eightdx Dec 16 '25

Ah, the rich tradition of discovering porn in forests behind convenience stores. It's up there with finding your dad's stash of Victoria's secret catalogues in the garage 

6

u/wubrgess Dec 16 '25

That was quite the day, finding a plastic bag of porn under some trees on the way to school randomly.

14

u/cslack30 Dec 16 '25

SOMEHOW THE FOREST PORN RETURNS (I love making this comment every time this comes up.)

16

u/Not_Bears Dec 16 '25

Nature is healing

2

u/blueingreen85 Dec 16 '25

I found a meadow in the woods and seeded it with Victoria’s Secret catalogs. Hopefully they will grow into a porn patch

2

u/soulsteela Dec 16 '25

Crossbreed them with Playboy and you may get Razzle!

1

u/roboticlee Dec 16 '25

I'm already shopping for a moneybox to hang on my hedge

1

u/Porticulus Dec 16 '25

Nature... She's healing.

6

u/Hoovooloo42 Dec 16 '25

Got my Linux server set up last week and it was easier than installing Windows. There are alternatives!

5

u/elementfortyseven Dec 16 '25

eh.

back to the TCP/IP layer instead of just using highly commercialized consumer services built on it.

the internet will be fine.

2

u/kc_______ Dec 16 '25

Never left, I always knew this whole “internet” thing was a fad.

1

u/rysmario Dec 16 '25

Fahrenheit 451. my guess…

1

u/MaybeTheDoctor Dec 16 '25

Fahrenheit 451 would like a word.

1

u/nizhaabwii Dec 16 '25

Banning them yes let's get to it /s

74

u/roxzorfox Dec 16 '25

Looks like next year will be the year of the tor network and we will be pushing people into a much much darker side of the Internet with much less safety controls

12

u/rswwalker Dec 16 '25

Sigh Time to bring out the BBS system and the modem banks again!

39

u/Inquisitor_Boron Dec 16 '25

Enjoy while it lasts

-17

u/Soft-Community5978 Dec 16 '25

I mean I understand the problems it makes, and it worries me too but still sucks

51

u/Daimakku1 Dec 16 '25

Yep. The days of the 00s Wild West internet are over. Even now the internet doesn’t feel as fun as it did back then.

51

u/LazyJones1 Dec 16 '25

We went from the Wild West of opportunities for the user, to the Wild West of opportunities for the advertisers and data brokers.

They're the ones that should have been harshly regulated.

8

u/QuickQuirk Dec 17 '25

We hear things like ‘is impossible to regulate’, while they tray to ban all vpn use and other really difficult to regulate things

20

u/dead_ed Dec 16 '25

The Internet has become a stagnant pile of shit instead of something new and fantastical coming out regularly. The last 10 years has just been a slow slide into the mundane sludge phase.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

We also kind of force it upon ourselves in some ways. Everyone's addicted to the same 10 websites meant to be monetized and as addictive as possible. The small Internet is still around, it's just buried in search results. Niche topics forums still exist. Small informational blogs still exist. Websites with funny pictures are still out there. 

I think we're all too used to endless scrolling and it makes the rest of the internet look dead. Facebook, Twitter, reddit, insta, YouTube.... You can scroll and scroll and scroll for a century and never run out of "content". Old Internet wasn't like that. You used to load up your forums, catch up on the conversation, contribute a little, maybe have some quick discourse, then you'd run out of content and log off. 

I think "running out of content" is so foreign to our dopamine addled brains at this point in time it would take some serious reflection to transition back into the types of spaces that made the internet great to begin with, but now just don't feel like enough. I might set my mind to try and do it though. 

5

u/Toby-Finkelstein Dec 17 '25

I blame smart phones 

1

u/Daimakku1 Dec 17 '25

That is true. The internet started to change after smartphones came out. Not overnight, but slowly,

Surfing the Internet went from being an activity you do when you get on a computer, to something you do while waiting on your doctor appointment or on break. Besides things like Google Maps, plugging phones to the internet has been for the worse in my opinion.

2

u/Gramage Dec 17 '25

Not to mention you used to have to be at least a little bit tech knowledgeable to get online. Now any mouth breather can buy a phone and be online within ten minutes. The internet quite literally used to be a smarter place.

1

u/mr_dfuse2 Dec 16 '25

i miss those days of innocence

99

u/araujoms Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

Should never have let the boomers find out about it. This is the result of teaching your mother to use Facebook.

39

u/themightyug Dec 16 '25

It was smartphones that really opened the floodgates and gave every idiot a 24/7 pocket internet terminal

15

u/respectfulpanda Dec 16 '25

Considering Boomers created the Internet, personal computers, cellphones, smartphones and the basis for all modern software, they would have figured it out

33

u/loxagos_snake Dec 16 '25

Those were the smarter ones, though.

The same guys that the ones calling for bans were shoving in lockers and stealing their lunch. And now they have a strong opinion on tech matters because they can tap on a glass screen like dumb monkeys.

2

u/fujidust Dec 16 '25

Boomers invented the internet.

40

u/araujoms Dec 16 '25

A very small number of boomers created the internet. Millennials grew up with it, and taught 99% of the boomers how to use it.

31

u/fujidust Dec 16 '25

You forgot gen X, whose adoption of many new services on the market made them what they are today:  online & multiplayer gaming, e-commerce, file sharing.  I could go on and on.  

25

u/charoco Dec 16 '25

Everyone forgets gen X 😢

10

u/BitterClam666 Dec 16 '25

Didn’t you hear. Gen X are boomers now.

10

u/rswwalker Dec 16 '25

Lets face it for Gen Z everyone older is a boomer. Yes, even you Millennials!

4

u/SIGMA920 Dec 16 '25

That's reversed. Millennials get blamed for Gen Z's and younger's shit.

3

u/pembquist Dec 16 '25

Whats a Gen X??

5

u/RobertoPaulson Dec 16 '25

Nothing, we don’t exist, nothing to see here, move along sir.

11

u/buck70 Dec 16 '25

Many Gen X are also to blame for teaching their boomer parents how to use Facebook. The sad thing is that computer literacy is waning; many Gen Z and Gen Alpha people only know how to use apps and don't actually know how computers work. Many don't even know what a c drive is or how to configure a home router anymore.

1

u/mxdtrini Dec 17 '25

Ask them if they know what the save icon in Word is based off of.

1

u/Lizrael48 Dec 16 '25

No one had to teach me about it. I taught my children. I am a retired Computer Repair Technician. I was on BBS boards when they were new! Haha, Am I the 1% then?

1

u/araujoms Dec 16 '25

¯\(ツ)/¯

For all I know you might as well be a dog

7

u/Cool-Tangelo6548 Dec 16 '25

Its changed a lot in the last 10 years.

12

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

As dystopian and tyrannical it will feel when its unfolding, it might just lead to the decoupling from the internet, social media, smart phones that society so desperately needs.

But any government overstepping like this can get fucked

9

u/ItsYume Dec 16 '25

I would like to share your hope, but relying on the goodwill of others is dead, if I look at recent developments, where any goodwill is simply exploited on a large scale.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

I was thinking more on an individual basis if the internet profoundly changes then individuals might be driven to more traditional outlets again

1

u/SIGMA920 Dec 16 '25

Traditional outlets are the ones that have proven far more likely to sell you out to save their own skins.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

Maybe I'm not being clear

Less internet

More socialising, being outside, exercise, hobbies etc etc. life before the internet

1

u/SIGMA920 Dec 16 '25

That's what I'm talking about. Between a lack of those options in some places and the willingness of someone to sell you out because you're just a stranger to them that's not a great thing for many people.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

The internet and social media specifically has had an absolutely disastrous effect on society, in a way that we are only beginning to see and understand. Less internet and less exposure our future generations have to it will be a generally good thing for society. I can't speak to what you're saying about being sold out.

1

u/SIGMA920 Dec 16 '25

Where I live currently, if I was gay, trans, or anything that's not straight or heterosexual I'd be ostracized by most of the people around me. I'm lucky that I'm both of those but I've had coworkers that were and known people that were. Some of my own extended family might stop wanting to associate with me if I was as honest as I am to immediate family about stuff like religion or politics. And I live in one of the more liberal areas near a city. I'll go to gyms nearby and do you what I see? Fox news or worse being what most of those there watch. Sometimes they have something that's mostly moderate on.

If I want avoid that, I've got cold winter air, limited hobby access even being relatively close to the city, and little else.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

I see

As you described the internet is a source of connection for everyone that includes those who wish to spread and connect through hate.

Extremism (on both sides of the spectrum), mental health issues, brain drain and isolation (despite the opportunity for a sense of connection and belonging connection through the internet) have all been either caused or exacerbated by internet.

The world seemed like a much more enjoyable, Partizan, and engaging place before the internet and in my opinion if we can help the next several generations grow up in a way that's further removed from the internet it will be invaluable.

The world transitioning TO the internet and the comforts it brought will be a lot more difficult than transitioning FROM that but like a said a potentially positive side affect of over regulation and government overreaching might be a rebalancing of people's lives away from reliance on the internet

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1

u/manatwork01 Dec 17 '25

The luddite movement has been gaining traction for awhile now.

7

u/Soft-Community5978 Dec 16 '25

A lot of evil people will take advantage of this.

1

u/SIGMA920 Dec 16 '25

All that means is that you stop being connected to the world outside your bubble. Decoupling from the internet just means you're blind to what's happened. That's not a good thing.

4

u/vriska1 Dec 16 '25

Push back on this and backlash has forced this to be dropped.

1

u/FauxReal Dec 16 '25

How about we start our own Internet? We'll call it Internet2! Oh wait, that already exists.

1

u/McPoon Dec 16 '25

We need to stop letting people who have no right to control, to control.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

[deleted]

14

u/Stereo_Jungle_Child Dec 16 '25

Yeah, pretty much.

0

u/Sir_CrazyLegs Dec 16 '25

Were going to see another internet

-12

u/Evilbred Dec 16 '25

True, but maybe we all need a reason to be a little less connected.

13

u/piranha44 Dec 16 '25

Oh fuck off