The above image is all us folk in the UK see when you do, and if we try to use a VPN + incognito, we get this:
403 means forbidden, so the message is disingenuous.
They must have put some effort into block lists for VPN servers. Even if it works for some of us, it’s not worth it.
For more information on this, see this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo
The vast, vast majority of users of an image embedding site do not have a user account and don’t even visit the site itself.
That’s true but besides the point. The possibility of hotlinking doesn’t obviate this kind of separation of user accounts.
You can embed pornhub videos too, does that mean that, on pornhub they shouldn’t have a basic "are you 18” age gate?