The British people always take any new limitations with the classic stiff upper lip. We could very easily become Russia (without the military and natural resources), because the population has the same say nothing, do nothing mentality.
There's also always been a bit of authoritarianism in the British populace. Just look at how enthusiastic people are about banning things that annoy them. During coronavirus lockdowns, the people living around me constantly reported me to the police for going out for runs (which we were perfectly allowed to do).
We have a national crab in bucket mentality, which doesn't help any country. Intelligence, fitness and success are all things that British people love pulling down. Many people here care more about ripping everybody down than building them up. They live completely mediocre lives and are perfectly fine with the government nannying them.
The two main parties policies have converged, so have the older smaller parties.
The only choices we have that are any different are Reform and The Green Party, and possibly Corbyn's new party that seems busy imploding right now. Of those, Reform has some nasty people in it, and is rapidly attracting the worst of the Conservative party (look at the defecting MPs), The Greens and Your Party have some fairly nuts people and ideas too (in different ways).
I think ordinary British people are pretty decent.
> We could very easily become Russia (without the military and natural resources)
We have a much bigger economy than Russia.
> any people here care more about ripping everybody down than building them up. They live completely mediocre lives and are perfectly fine with the government nannying them.
I agree with the last bit.
People are also negative about their follow citizens. A lot of people believe the country is full of untrustowrthy "gammon". and back the government/establishment against the latter.
My guess is that the common factor is News Corporation pushing an agenda on behalf of the very, very wealthy.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianPolitics/comments/1nu68je...
[1]https://au.yougov.com/politics/articles/51000-support-for-un...
[2]https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gen-z-social...
In reality, the technical implementation will undoubtedly be a privacy and surveillance disaster.
In a vacuum, people thought "social media" meant "Instagram and TicToc and Facebook etc."
In reality, the eSafety commissioner thinks "social media" includes platforms like GitHub. Yes, really.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-24/digital-dilemna-socia...
It's just another layer in the stupidity of this all that GitHub would be blocked but steam, discord and Roblox are exempt because they're for gaming despite being infamous environments.
---[1]
(1) For the purposes of this Act, age‑restricted social media platform means:
(a) an electronic service that satisfies the following conditions:
(i) the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end‑users;
(ii) the service allows end‑users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end‑users;
(iii) the service allows end‑users to post material on the service;
(iv) such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules; or
(b) an electronic service specified in the legislative rules;
----[2]
For the purposes of paragraph 63C(6)(b) of the Act, electronic services in each of the following classes are specified:
(a) services that have the sole or primary purpose of enabling end‑users to communicate by means of messaging, email, voice calling or video calling;
(b) services that have the sole or primary purpose of enabling end‑users to play online games with other end‑users;
(c) services that have the sole or primary purpose of enabling end‑users to share information (such as reviews, technical support or advice) about products or services;
(d) services that have the sole or primary purpose of enabling end‑users to engage in professional networking or professional development;
(e) services that have the sole or primary purpose of supporting the education of end‑users;
(f) services that have the sole or primary purpose of supporting the health of end‑users;
(g) services that have a significant purpose of facilitating communication between educational institutions and students or students’ families;
(h) services that have a significant purpose of facilitating communication between providers of health care and people using those providers’ services.
It was one of the most agreed with policies at the most recent Federal election.
I hate it as a concept, but at the moment it is all "don't you want children to be protected?", and nothing of substance that people can meaningfully find objectionable (like imgur getting cut off).
I don't think it is particularly a policy of News Corp, although they're happy to run with populist ideas, and more just an issue the Labor party thought they could wedge the Liberals with.
The UK doesn't have governments, it has a public policy unit for global capital, with the Americans calling the shots on foreign policy, and a knee-jerk taste for authoritarianism at home.
I would say there has been a groundswell of opinion, it’s not something that is covered here on HN much.
There's been no groundswell of opinion, no technically minded authority pushing expert opinion.
The same people lobbying for the online safety act were pushing age verification tools. The government is exceptionally unpopular, even by the standards of already deeply unpopular governments in recent years.
I despair of the situation in the UK. How have we ended up here?