- 20+ digital rights groups and tech companies urge UK not to restrict VPNs
- Age-restricted VPNs would undermine the online privacy of millions, they warn
- Signatories believe that VPN restrictions are ineffective, technically impossible
The UK government’s ongoing debate on tightening online safety rules to protect children has drawn fierce backlash from the global cyber security sector.
On July 9, a coalition of 24 major digital rights organizations and top VPN providers, including Amnesty International, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark and Mozilla, issued a stark warning to the UK government: Leave VPNs alone.
In an open letter to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, the group stressed that while keeping children safe is a shared goal, it must not come at the cost of breaking the internet’s basic privacy infrastructure.
As lawmakers weigh potential restrictions ahead of an expected online security advisory update 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 rules could fundamentally change 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 to protect.
“Restricting VPNs would undermine security”
The heart of the coalition’s argument is that virtual private networks (VPNs) are, first and foremost, essential security software.
“The challenge is to ensure that measures strengthen children’s safety without weakening the privacy and security that millions of people rely on every day, including children,” the letter explains.
In addition to ordinary 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 activists and journalists, survivors of domestic violence, the LGBTQ+ community and others at increased risk online.” As rights groups have previously noted, weakening these protections could actively violate human rights.
The group directly addressed the reality check of age verification and did not mince words about the dangers of ID checks.
“Age-restricted VPNs will require everyone to hand over sensitive personal information just to access tools designed to protect privacy,” the letter said.
A technically impossible approach
Critics of the UK’s proposed ban on social media for teenagers have repeatedly pointed out that limiting privacy tools is a flawed approach to children’s 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 intended for older audiences.”
The coalition also highlights that teenagers will simply find other, lower-tech ways around rules. “Evidence from Australia shows that children are much more likely to evade age checks by not being asked, giving false information or even drawing on a moustache,” the letter adds.
Ultimately, the cybersecurity industry warns that while restricting privacy tools won’t protect children, it will succeed in punishing ordinary users. “Reliably blocking VPN traffic is technically impossible,” the letter warns, noting that it risks locking out employers and schools while pushing ordinary citizens toward “unregulated, data-exploiting services that are harder to monitor, leaving them less secure.”
Instead of cracking down on encrypted tools, the coalition calls on the government to focus its future policies on the root causes of online harm, suggesting investments in “strong enforcement of platform obligations, better parental controls, investment in digital skills and security and privacy-by-design commitments.”
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