End Well, This Won’t: Uk Commissioner Suggests Govt Stops Kids From Using Vpns

England’s children’s commissioner has urged the government to shut down one of the most obvious loopholes in its new age-blocking regime: kids firing up a VPN.

UK govt dept website that campaigns against encryption hijacked to advertise … payday loans

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In a report published today [PDF], Dame Rachel de Souza said ministers should force VPN providers to build in “highly effective age assurance” to stop under-18s from dodging the Online Safety Act’s restrictions. Without action, she warned, the government’s long-awaited age verification rules risk being rendered “inadequate.”

The only way to do it is badly

Her office’s survey of 16- to 21-year-olds makes grim reading for lawmakers hoping the new regime would be watertight. The survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act came into force. More than a quarter said that they’d first seen porn by age 11, while seven in ten had viewed it before hitting 18. The report comes less than a month after the UK switched on mandatory age checks for commercial porn sites.

Since July 25, operators have been required to keep out under-18s or face fines of up to £18 million, or 10 percent of global turnover. Watchdog Ofcom has already opened investigations into 34 high-traffic adult platforms serving millions of UK users.

Early signs suggest that the clampdown is already showing results. Web bean-counter Similarweb reported that Pornhub saw a 47 per cent drop in British traffic after the law came into force, falling from 3.2 million in July to 2 million in the first nine days of August.

But the banhammer has also driven a surge in VPN use, giving children and adults alike a way around the new digital fences. That puts VPNs firmly in the commissioner’s sights.

De Souza wants the government to explore technical solutions with providers to make sure the tools aren’t being used to evade checks. “This could be achieved by amending the Online Safety Act to bring in an additional provision which would require VPN providers in the UK to put in place Highly Effective Age Assurance to screen underage users and prevent them from accessing pornographic sites,” the report states.

Privacy and security experts argue that banning or hobbling VPNs would risk collateral damage to everyday users who rely on the tools for security and work. “The only way to do it is badly,” Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point Software, told The Register last month.

“You’d effectively be forcing ISPs to block legitimate encrypted traffic and, in doing so, you’d be regulating an entire industry out of existence. Worse still, you’d be legislating against cybersecurity and privacy.” It’s also worth noting that some schools rely on VPNs – not to dodge porn filters, but to let students securely access internal systems, exam boards, research databases, and software from home.

By trying to stop kids sneaking past age gates, ministers risk breaking the very digital plumbing that keeps lessons, exams, and research running.

“Children have been left to grow up in a lawless online world for too long, bombarded with pornography and harmful content that can scar them for life. The Online Safety Act is changing that,” a government spokesperson told The Register. “Let’s be clear: VPNs are legal tools for adults and there are no plans to ban them. But if platforms deliberately push workarounds like VPNs to children, they face tough enforcement and heavy fines. We will not allow corporate interests to come before child safety. This is about drawing a line – no more excuses, no more loopholes. Protecting children online must come first.”

That stance is hardly surprising. The Online Safety Act was years in the making, repeatedly delayed, and watered down amid opposition from civil liberties groups and tech companies. Dragging global VPN providers into the fray would open a fresh front in what’s already a bruising battle over online freedoms. ®

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