Desiderata | John Carr | Substack

The forward march of an age-aware internet

The End of Internet Exceptionalism: How Age Verification Moved from Science Fiction to Science Fact

Jan 4 • John Carr

I am not going to try to provide an overview of everything that happened in the online child protection world in 2025.

Jan 1 • John Carr

VPNs in other countries

Last month Cybernews published a piece on “VPN adoption rates by country”. Cybernews is heavily into promoting VPNs.

Nov 7, 2025 • John Carr

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

(not all of them are what they seem or claim to be)

Nov 6, 2025 • John Carr

(with apologies to Bruce Springsteen)

Nov 1, 2025 • John Carr

What Freedom House data and others tell us

Oct 23, 2025 • John Carr

Interests perpetual and eternal

Palmerston would have recognised Europe’s current predicament. Only the wiring has changed.

Oct 21, 2025 • John Carr

Desiderata

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