You, your phone and 30 seconds: are you one of the 1 in 4 users flagged as bots this week?

A pop-up stops you mid-scroll. It asks you to prove you are human. You feel rushed, watched, and slightly accused.

You were reading, then the screen changed. A system judged your behaviour machine-like and put you on hold. The message looked severe, the timer ticked, and the worry set in.

What happened on your screen

You landed on a verification page because the publisher’s defences thought you might be an automated visitor. Media groups face automated scraping, ad fraud and AI data harvesting, so they now run strict checks. News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun, states that it forbids automated access, collection, and text or data mining of its content. That includes use for AI, machine learning and large language models. Its notice also says real people sometimes get caught up in these checks and can ask for help via [email protected]. Businesses that want to license content for commercial use are told to contact [email protected].

The publisher bans automated access and data mining, including for AI and LLMs, under its terms and conditions.

If you are real but blocked, the message directs you to contact [email protected] for verification and support.

Why so many sites challenge you now

Web publishers face heavy pressure. Automated traffic distorts audience figures, drains bandwidth, and eats into paid subscriptions. Data mining can lift premium reporting at scale without consent. With generative AI hungry for fresh text, many outlets fear wholesale reuse. As a result, more sites deploy bot mitigation tools, behaviour analytics, and tougher verification steps.

Estimates vary, but independent audits regularly place a large slice of web requests outside normal human patterns. That picture pushes publishers to add friction. The checks catch a lot, and they sometimes misfire.

The signals that trigger a block

• Rapid-fire page requests or repeated refreshes from the same device or network.
• Disabled JavaScript or cookies, which breaks normal site behaviour tracking.
• Traffic routed through VPNs, proxies, Tor or cloud data centres with bot reputations.
• Headless browsers and automation frameworks that leave tell-tale fingerprints.
• Non-human patterns: no scrolling, pixel-perfect mouse paths, instant clicks.
• Odd timings, such as requests at machine-like intervals over long sessions.

How to pass verification in seconds

• Enable JavaScript and cookies in your browser settings.
• Switch off your VPN or proxy, then reload once.
• Close extra tabs hammering the same site from the same account.
• Pause for 20–30 seconds before another attempt to cool down rate limits.
• Complete any visible test, such as a CAPTCHA, without reloading.
• Scroll naturally and avoid rapid, repeated clicks that look scripted.

What News Group Newspapers says

The company’s notice states a clear position: no automated access or text/data mining of its content, and no use of such content for AI, machine learning, or LLM training without permission. The message points to its terms and conditions as the basis for enforcement. If you want commercial clearance, you’re directed to [email protected]. If you are a normal reader who got flagged, you can ask for help at [email protected].

False alarms do happen

Defensive systems make fast judgements. They weigh IP reputation, request patterns and browser signals. A privacy tool can hide those signals. A corporate network can look like one user making hundreds of visits. A VPN can share an address with known bots. That mix can trigger a temporary block even when you just want to read.

When that happens, check the basics: turn off the VPN, allow cookies, and reload once. Avoid a flurry of refreshes. If you still see the barrier, gather a short note with the time, your rough location, your browser and device, and any error code. Send that to [email protected]. Keep it concise and factual. Support teams can whitelist legitimate patterns once they have enough detail.

Consent, contracts and the AI debate

Publishers protect their work through contracts and access controls. UK copyright law includes a narrow exception for non‑commercial text and data mining by research bodies, but commercial mining and AI training sit outside that. Site terms usually ban automated collection outright. Even where robots.txt allows crawling for indexing, it does not grant a licence to copy and repurpose content for training models or building competing feeds.

Companies that want data at scale now treat content as a licensed asset. They pay for feeds, respect rate limits, and log consent. That approach reduces legal risk, cuts down on blocks and preserves relationships with media owners. Everyone else runs into heavier gating: JavaScript challenges, device fingerprinting and account-based checks.

Terms and conditions govern access: ignore them and you risk IP blocks, contractual claims and lasting loss of access.

If you build tools or run scripts

Golden rules for responsible access

• Read the site’s terms and robots.txt before you program anything.
• Ask for permission and a licence if you need content for commercial use.
• Use a clear user agent and a monitored contact email so admins can reach you.
• Respect rate limits, back off on errors, and schedule polite crawl windows.
• Cache responses and avoid duplicate hits from multiple servers.
• Stop immediately if you trigger challenges or receive a prohibition notice.

Simple self-check before you fetch

• Can you meet your goal using an official API or licensed feed instead of scraping?
• Do you have written consent or a contract for the data you will store and reuse?
• Will your users know where the content came from and under what rights?
• Have you implemented a kill switch if the publisher asks you to halt?

Need help now?

If you’re stuck behind a verification wall, keep your message practical. State you are a real user, add the time and page you tried to access, include your browser and device, and mention whether you used a VPN or ad‑blocker. Send this to [email protected]. If you represent a business and need structured access, write to [email protected] with a short summary of your use case, volumes, and jurisdiction.

For day‑to‑day browsing, set aside 30 seconds to pass checks, keep privacy tools balanced with site requirements, and avoid frantic reloads. For technical teams, budget for licences where content underpins your product. That shift turns a brittle workaround into a stable pipeline.