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UK officials are eyeing a crackdown on underage VPN use as teenagers look to circumvent the country's age-verification law.
"We need age-verification on VPNs," Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner for England, told BBC Newsnight. "It's absolutely a loophole that needs closing."
The UK’s Online Safety Act requires users to verify they are over 18 before accessing adult content, dating apps, or certain material on social media. In response, UK users of all ages have been flocking to VPNs, which can trick these sites into thinking you're outside the UK.
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In another interview with Sky News, de Souza said she uses a VPN when traveling abroad. “There are really good reasons to use a VPN,” she said. “But if we age check [VPNs], we would know if that VPN had been used by a child to see porn.”
Although de Souza’s goal is to prevent children from accessing harmful content, an age-check system for VPNs would alarm privacy advocates since virtual private networks are designed to prevent such monitoring by encrypting your web browsing traffic.
The UK government tells the BBC that there are no plans to ban VPNs. In the meantime, de Souza is also taking aim at social media companies, where she says most children in the UK are viewing porn, including illegal porn.
“They’ve had years to pull this stuff down and protect children, and they’re just not doing enough,” she claimed to Sky News. “What I’m concerned about is six-year-olds seeing violent, coercive porn. We’ve got to do better.”