The UK’s Social Media Ban and the Potential Impact on VPN Services
As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a sweeping ban on social media for under-16s by next spring, speculation has grown that VPN services could be next on the chopping block.
Such concerns do not arise in isolation.
In his announcement on Monday, Starmer said further information on further restrictions would be shared next month.
Then, speaking to BBC Breakfast the following day, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall left no doubt when she said: “We will make further statements in July on VPNs.”
While we wait to see what the government decides to do next, let’s take a look at how the debate unfolded and what’s at stake for VPN users in the UK.
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The VPN Debate in the UK
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Calls to close the ‘VPN loophole’ have been made from the benches of the Palace of Westminster since mandatory age verification landed in the UK last July and led to a surge in VPN use across the country.
Virtual private network (VPN) apps and similar tools can indeed make users appear to be browsing from outside the country, potentially helping them bypass age checks.
It’s difficult to determine whether this spike in usage is due to adults reluctant to share biometric data or children seeking restricted content, but recent studies by groups like Childnet and Internet Matters suggest the scales may tip in favor of the former.
Nevertheless, the debate became so heated among politicians last year that the government decided to include questions about possible age restrictions for VPNs in its consultation on online safety, which ended in May.
In the meantime, however, the controversial Child Welfare and Schools Act has become law, introducing a requirement for all service providers to take “reasonable anti-circumvention measures”.
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This, alongside the new proposed ban on social media for teenagers, could put increased pressure on UK lawmakers to further regulate the use of VPNs.
The Risks of Age-Restricting VPNs
In the report accompanying the consultation, the government highlights the need to balance enforceable content restrictions without limiting the “legitimate and lawful use” of VPNs by adults.
However, when we conducted the online security survey ourselves, we found that VPNs were mainly described in the questionnaire as circumvention tools rather than privacy products, which is of course their main purpose. It’s an extremely simplistic view that worries cybersecurity experts.
According to Romain Digneaux, head of public policy at Proton VPN, lawmakers need to take into consideration that VPNs are an essential tool for user privacy and security that millions of Britons rely on every day.
“Imposing age restrictions on VPNs would only make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to access the tools that protect their privacy and security,” Digneaux told TechRadar.
Evidence from Australia shows that using a VPN is not the primary evasion method for under-16s to circumvent the social media ban. Platforms that do not ask users to verify their age and age assurance systems that incorrectly calculate a child’s age are the main reasons why teenagers are still active on these platforms.
VPN providers are also concerned about the impact that possible age restrictions will ultimately have on their product. In fact, most of them operate under a strict no-logging policy in order to collect as little information about their users as possible.
This is exactly why, according to Justas Pukys, senior product manager at Surfshark, the prospect of age-restricted VPNs is so concerning.
“This would undermine the privacy architecture these services are built on, primarily affecting ordinary users and reputable providers,” he told TechRadar.
NordVPN privacy advocate Laura Tyrylyte echoes these concerns. She told us:
“Restricting access to these tools, or requiring identity-based access, would have consequences far beyond the negligible number of users who might seek to circumvent online restrictions.”
The concerns don’t just come from the companies that build VPNs.
Last month, Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind Firefox, warned the UK Department of Science, Innovation and Technology that age-restricting VPNs “would undermine the privacy and security of all users” while failing to protect children.
The outcry follows a similar call from the wider privacy sector, made as the Child Wellbeing and Schools Bill became law.
Is Restricting VPNs Even Needed and Could It Work?
Although VPNs have proven to be useful tools for evading mandatory age checks in the UK for accessing so-called legal but harmful content under the Online Safety Act, it is still unclear whether they will help circumvent the new social media ban.
As Windscribe CEO Yegor Sak explains, it depends on how these restrictions are ultimately enforced. If a platform simply blocks users based on UK network location, he explains, then a VPN is the ideal tool for the job.
“But whether verification happens at the account level, app store level, device level, payment level, or through identity verification, a VPN doesn’t make a 15-year-old look like an 18-year-old. It doesn’t create an old account, credit card, or verified identity,” Sak told TechRadar.
At present, we know very few details about how law enforcement might unfold, but experts overwhelmingly expect the latter, more robust scenario.
Social media providers might also use a combination of account history, payment signals, facial estimation, identity providers, device or app store signals, and document verifications.
Regardless of whether age-related VPNs are actually necessary to successfully implement the UK’s teen social media ban – Australian lawmakers didn’t think it was necessary, for what that’s worth – it also remains to be seen whether such VPN restrictions would actually work in practice.
As we saw in Utah, which became the first US state to meet such requirements, it may be technically impossible to block all known VPN and proxy IP addresses. At least that’s what NordVPN told TechRadar in March, saying the only option left would be to verify the age of every visitor around the world, regardless of their actual location.
Furthermore, even the most draconian restrictions are not very effective. Take Russia, for example. The Kremlin has invested millions in building a sophisticated censorship system, but VPN services continue to demonstrate resilience by constantly adapting to new tactics.
It appears that UK lawmakers have many factors to consider in determining the next steps towards making the internet a safer place for children, and it seems like it might be wise to take a look before making your plans.
For Windscribe’s Sak, however, it should be enough to look at just one item.
“If a policy creates pressure to limit the age of VPNs, it’s a sign that the policy is not being followed. You are not protecting children by weakening everyone’s privacy and security,” he said.
VPN and privacy-conscious users in the UK will hope this remains at the forefront of discussions.
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