Guide: How to Bypass the UK’s Internet Porn Filter

You probably know that Mr. Porn Geek is passionate about porn, but he’s also passionate about privacy, Internet freedom and keeping dumb governments out of your shit. At some point in 2019, the United Kingdom will have legislation enacted that will, to some degree, make access to various porn sites impossible without age verification. Verifying your age to use websites is an unnecessary burden and invasion of privacy, which is why I’m putting together this helpful page to assist you in bypassing this law. There are very few times in my life where I have the ability to combine my hatred of government with my love of pornography – so let’s get into this and breakdown how you can bypass the porn filter in the UK.

Step 1: Change DNS Servers

DNS servers are basically address books: they take a URL like MrPornGeek.com and point you toward a specific server located somewhere in the world so you can access the files there. By default, your Internet connection will use DNS servers maintained by your ISP: this is the main way that filtering occurs when it’s enforced by the so-called state. What we’re going to do is switch over our DNS servers to ones that are not going to filter out connections to websites that governments don’t want you to access. Mr. Porn Geek recommends 1.1.1.1 (which will be used for this guide), although you can also use Google’s public DNS if you’d prefer.

Guide for Windows

1. Open your start menu and type ‘Control Panel’
2. Open the Control Panel and then navigate to Network and Sharing Center
3. Click ‘Change adapter settings’ on the left-hand panel
4. Right-click your active Internet connection and select ‘Properties’
5. Select ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’ and select ‘Properties’
6. Change the bottom setting to ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’ and enter 1.1.1.1 as the preferred and 1.0.0.1 as the alternative.

Here’s a video guide to show you how it’s done (click the ‘SD’ cog to make the video High Definition):

You can also do the same for the IPv6 servers: the same organisation runs the two following addresses:

2606:4700:4700::1111
2606:4700:4700::1001

Guide for Other Devices

Head on over to Cloudflare’s documentation on setting up 1.1.1.1 as an alternative DNS. They’ve got guides for Android, iPhone, Linux and even Gaming Consoles.

Step 2: Ensure you visit HTTPS websites

HTTP websites send data via plain text, which means that you don’t have an encrypted connection with the end server you’re receiving and sending data to. It’s practically unacceptable for websites in the modern era not to install TLS – especially when it’s free to do and takes just a few minutes to set up with Zero SSL. Monitoring user traffic sent over HTTP as an ISP might eventually be a step taken in the United Kingdom to restrict access to pornographic websites, so while your ISP might not control your DNS (address book), it can still decide to filter out any requests that contain a certain words (such as porn, sex, etc.). Having an encrypted connection negates this avenue of filtering, so try to always use https:// instead of http://. I recommend HTTPS Everywhere as a way to automate this task (when possible). It’s a free plugin for Chrome, Firefox and Opera – they’ve even got an Android version! Your settings should look like this on Chrome for optimal functionality:

Do note that this seems to break a few websites, but I’ve been using HTTPS Everywhere for years and the only place I can’t access (for some reason) is archive.is. There’s a post about this situation on the EFF website.

Step 3: Use a VPN

Mr. Porn Geek has already reviewed most of the popular VPNs on the market and I currently recommend two options for porn users: Nord VPN and VPN Hub. These both require payments, but you get optimized routing and fast speeds, so there’s a definite benefit if you’re a bandwidth junkie like me. If you’re looking for a slower – but free – option, I recommend downloading the Opera Browser and using their in-built VPN. It’s not the most customization-friendly privacy tool, but I don’t think many people can complain, since it doesn’t cost you anything to use and functions quite well!

Here’s a video guide to show you how it’s done (click the ‘SD’ cog to make the video High Definition):

Step 4: Download TOR

For a long time, TOR was a ‘going nuclear’ option. Today, it’s a pretty robust and surprisingly quick service that is likely the most important tool on the planet for privacy and secrecy. You can download TOR here for a few different devices and I highly recommend reading some of the documentation that comes with it to understand how the system works and why it’s so good for Internet security. There’s a small chance that when using TOR, your exit node will be located in the United Kingdom. The screenshot below shows you the button to press to get an immediate new identity (which is randomized for security purposes). Your best bet for an exit node is the United States, owing to the constitution and limited powers of government to regulate the Internet.

Conclusion

I really hope this guide was simple enough for you to follow and I’m confident that if you follow my steps, you won’t be subject to the UK’s porn filter. As far as I understand it, not all adult websites will be required to confirm your age – just the ones that are sufficiently large enough for the government to bully and threaten with being filtered. If you’re in the UK and change DNS servers, that change won’t help, but the VPN options will – especially TOR. Anyway gang, thanks for reading and if you’ve got any questions, be sure to let me know. I’m always on hand to help you access smut!