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The UK is signaling that it's serious about blocking children from using VPNs, which is raising concerns the country will require age verification to use the privacy tools.
The UK's Online Safety Act already mandates age verification for major social media platforms. But the government brought up the possible VPN restrictions as part of its effort to prevent children under the age of 16 from accessing online chatbots.
This consultation (the UK's term for seeking feedback and public comment on an issue) on
"children’s wellbeing online...will also confront the full range of risks children face online," the government said in its announcement. "This includes examining restrictions on children’s use of AI chatbots, as well as options to age restrict or limit children’s VPN use where it undermines safety protections and changing the age of digital consent.”
On Monday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also briefly mentioned a clampdown on VPNs, calling them out as a way for children to circumvent age-verification systems.
In August, Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner for England, flagged VPN use as a “loophole” that needed to be closed in order to enforce the Online Safety Act. "We need age-verification on VPNs," said at the time.
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However, Mullvad VPN is concerned that any age-verification for VPN apps will force companies to collect sensitive data from users when VPNs have long been seen as tool to protect privacy.
“The correct term, however, is not age verification but identity verification,” Mullvad VPN said in a post on Mastodon. “A law like this would require everyone to identify themselves in order to use a VPN. This would pose a risk to whistleblowers, violate human rights, and represent yet another step toward an authoritarian society.”
By encrypting your internet traffic and routing it through global servers, VPNs have long been essential tools for safeguarding privacy and bypassing online censorship. It's also why the UK civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch, is criticizing the Starmer's announcement as “a draconian crackdown on the civil liberties of children and adults alike.
“The only way such restrictions could be enforced effectively would be for VPN providers to require all users to undergo age-assurance measures,” the group added. “Having to provide ID or a biometric face scan to access a VPN utterly defeats the point of a technology designed to enhance privacy online.”