Hands off our VPNs, privacy groups tell UK ministers
Jump to main content
Search
REG AD
networks
Hands off our VPNs, privacy groups tell UK ministers
Mozilla, Proton, Tor warn ministers that targeting the tech risks creating more problems than it solves
Carly Page
Carly<br>Page
Published<br>tue 14 Jul 2026 // 12:59 UTC
Privacy campaigners, browser makers, and VPN providers have united to warn the UK government against restricting virtual private networks, saying age-gating the technology would weaken online security while doing little to stop kids dodging social media bans.<br>The Open Rights Group on Tuesday published an open letter signed by more than 20 organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ExpressVPN, the Internet Society, Mozilla, Mullvad, Proton, and the Tor Project.<br>It urges ministers to rule out age verification and other restrictions on VPN services.
REG AD
The coalition argues that VPNs have become important infrastructure for a broad range of users, from businesses and journalists to abuse survivors and ordinary users trying to protect themselves on public Wi-Fi. Requiring users to prove their age would undermine the privacy VPNs are intended to provide.
REG AD
"Restricting VPNs would undercut the security and privacy of millions, without making children safer," the letter reads. "Age-gating VPNs would require everyone to surrender sensitive personal information simply to access tools designed to protect privacy."<br>It's hardly a new fight. Mozilla spent much of spring arguing that ministers were chasing the wrong target, warning that breaking VPNs would do little to fix Britain's age-check problem while making the internet less private and less secure for everyone else. The open letter suggests plenty of others have since reached the same conclusion.<br>The intervention comes as ministers prepare to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s, arguing that VPNs aren't the loophole many critics assume. The government's own research backs that up, showing that while about one in four 11 to 17-year-olds said they'd used a VPN, only 7 to 10 percent did so to bypass age checks. Most simply lied about their age instead.<br>The coalition highlights similar figures from Ofcom, which it says makes a poor case for tightening access to VPNs.
MORE CONTEXT
Utah tells porn sites to take the P out of VPNs, and it's their fault that they can't
Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy
Firewalls and VPNs are so complex now, they can actually make you less secure
End well, this won't: UK commissioner suggests govt stops kids from using VPNs
"Ofcom's research found that only around 3 percent of children had used VPNs to access content meant for older audiences," the letter says. "Evidence from Australia shows children are much more likely to get around age checks by not being asked, giving false information, or even drawing on a mustache."<br>The signatories instead want ministers to tackle what they describe as the "root causes of online harms," rather than making people prove who they are before they can use privacy tools. The letter argues that strong enforcement of platform obligations, better parental controls, investment in digital literacy, and privacy-by-design requirements would do more to protect children than requiring VPNs to be behind age checks.<br>Whether the government is persuaded may depend on whether it views VPNs as a niche loophole used by a small minority of teenagers – as its own research suggests – or as the next obstacle to enforcing its online safety agenda. ®
networks<br>mozilla foundation<br>government of the united kingdom<br>vpn<br>social media<br>privacy
REG AD
Virtualization
Google Cloud's VMware service loses resilience due to a dud update
As VMware itself warns of critical flaw in its load balancer
AI and ML
OpenAI hides Codex agent instructions behind encryption, leaving developers in the dark
Developers worry encrypted MultiAgentV2 messages will make debugging and auditing harder
Gobi X: Creating more energy for AI, not taking it from society
PARTNER CONTENT: How Envision is reversing the datacenter playbook by making computing chase abundant desert power, not the other way around
security
Patchpocalypse Now: Microsoft tops last month's record with 622 Patch Tuesday CVEs
Remember when last month's 206 CVEs seemed eye-watering? Yeah, those were the days
columnists
How do you solve a problem like Capita?
Bringing troubled contracts in-house requires skills Whitehall is already struggling to recruit
AI and ML
If you want Claude to speak nicely to you, try Hindi or Arabic
Anthropic finds Claude expresses different values across languages
MOST POPULAR
ai and ml
Even banks and hyperscalers are now sounding the alarm about the AI bubble
software
Court tosses Microsoft's appeal in pre-owned software licenses battle
Security
GitHub AI agent leaks private repos when asked nicely
applications
Microsoft to switch off OWA Light after nearly two...