- More than 20 digital rights groups and tech companies urge UK not to restrict VPNs
- Age-controlled VPNs would undermine online privacy for millions, warn
- Signatories believe VPN restrictions are ineffective and technically unfeasible
The UK government’s ongoing debate over tightening online safety rules to protect children has sparked fierce pushback from the global cybersecurity sector.
On July 9, a coalition of 24 major digital rights organizations and major VPN providers, including Amnesty International, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, and Mozilla, issued a stern warning to the UK government: leave VPNs alone.
In an open letter to Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Liz Kendall, the group stressed that while keeping children safe is a shared goal, it should not be achieved at the cost of breaking the fundamental internet privacy infrastructure.
As lawmakers weigh potential restrictions ahead of an update to the online safety consultation scheduled for this month, the stakes for your digital privacy have never been higher.
If you currently use the best VPN to protect your personal data on public Wi-Fi or secure your connection while working remotely, new regulations could fundamentally alter how these tools work. Any move to force VPN providers to verify the age of their users would require you to hand over sensitive personal data, effectively destroying the anonymity you pay for.
“Restricting VPNs would undermine security”
The core of the coalition’s argument is that virtual private networks (VPNs) are, first and foremost, essential security software.
“The challenge is to ensure that the measures strengthen child safety without weakening the privacy and security that millions of people rely on every day, including children,” the letter explains.
Beyond everyday consumers, the coalition notes that VPNs provide critical protection for vulnerable groups.
The open letter emphasizes that these tools are a lifeline for “human rights defenders and journalists, domestic abuse survivors, the LGBTQ+ community, and others who are most at risk online.” As human rights groups have previously noted, weakening this protection could actively infringe human rights.
Addressing age verification head-on, the group pulled no punches about the dangers of identity checks.
“Age-restricted VPNs would require everyone to hand over sensitive personal information simply to access tools designed to protect privacy,” the letter states.
A technically unfeasible approach
Critics of the UK’s proposed teen social media ban have repeatedly pointed out that restricting privacy tools is a flawed approach to child safety. The letter backs this up with hard data, pointing to Ofcom research which “found that only around 3% of children had used VPNs to access content aimed at older audiences”.
The coalition also notes that teens will simply find other, less technological ways to get around the rules. “Evidence from Australia shows that children are much more likely to evade age checks if they are not asked, give false information or even draw a moustache,” the letter adds.
Ultimately, the cybersecurity industry warns that while restricting privacy tools won’t protect children, it will punish regular users. “Blocking VPN traffic reliably is technically infeasible,” the letter warns, noting that it risks locking employers and schools out of the web, while pushing ordinary citizens toward “unregulated services that exploit data and are harder to police, leaving them less secure.”
Instead of breaking down encrypted tools, the coalition urges the government to focus its next policies on the root causes of online harm, suggesting investments in “strong enforcement of platform obligations, better parental controls, investment in digital literacy, and security and privacy by design obligations.”
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