UK's Next "Child Safety" Scheme Aims to Ban VPNs for Under 18s

Some things never change: war, the physical and natural laws, and for the past few years, the UK’s attempts to “protect children” in all the wrong ways. 

This time the UK government has set their crosshairs on the VPNs, as Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is exploring potential restrictions on VPNs. Apparently, children are using them to "get around important protections." Who could’ve thought, right?

This decision continues a running trend of world governments trying to take away our online privacy and anonymity under the pretense of protecting children, all while ignoring the fact that most of their ideas end up failing and often hurting the kids much more than actually protecting them.

The UK Government Opens Consultation on Child Safety Measures

On Tuesday, the UK government announced a three-month consultation on "further measures" to keep kids safe online. It will involve discussions with parents, safety organizations, tech companies, and young people about various measures. Beyond VPN restrictions, they're considering banning social media for under-16s, preventing companies from harvesting children's data, introducing overnight curfews, and curbing "excessive doomscrolling."

The House of Lords vote came just a day after Kendall's announcement. Conservative peer Lord Nash introduced the amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, arguing that the government's consultation was "unnecessary, misconceived, and clearly a last-minute attempt to kick the can down the road." The vote ended in 207-159 in favor of banning VPNs for anyone under 18.

While labor peers wanted to wait for consultation results, that wasn't good enough for the Lords. Crossbench peer Baroness Kidron put it bluntly: "Consultation is the playground of the tech lobbyist, and inaction is the most powerful tool in politics." The amendment now heads to the House of Commons, where the government's majority will likely try to overturn it.

The Same Tired Playbook: Ban First, Think Later

Just like before, there’s one thing painfully clear here – this isn't really about child safety. If it were, lawmakers would actually think through what happens next.

Instead, they're choosing the path of least resistance. Ban the thing, declare victory, and move on without worrying about the consequences. It's the same approach that's been tried with everything from file-sharing to encryption, and it never works. Kids are tech-savvy quick learners with curiosity that triumphs over it all. If they want to do something, they will, unless actually physically restrained.

Privacy advocates have been saying this for years: "The answer to 'how do we keep kids safe online' isn't 'destroy everyone's privacy.' It's not 'force people to hand over their IDs to access legal content.' And it's certainly not 'ban access to the tools that protect journalists, activists, and abuse survivors.'"

But here we are anyway, watching governments double down on policies that sound good in headlines but fall apart under scrutiny.

The Real Danger: Pushing Kids Toward Riskier Tools

I don’t know what has to happen so that the people making these decisions will finally get it into their heads that banning things has never solved anything, especially when it comes to kids. They'll find workarounds. Only, chances are that those workarounds will be quite a bit more dangerous than what they're using now.

Kids don't read privacy policies or check if that free VPN or proxy provider they found is trustworthy. They click "install" on whatever gets them around the block fastest. You want to talk about putting kids at risk? Force them underground and watch what happens.

The UK already saw a massive VPN usage spike after the Online Safety Act came into force in July. But people aren't using VPNs to help kids bypass protections. They're using them because they don't trust age verification providers with their personal data, and frankly, can you blame them?

If lawmakers genuinely cared about young people's wellbeing, they'd invest in education, give parents better tools, and address the actual root causes of harm online. Instead, they're choosing surveillance dressed up as safety.

The consultation runs for three months. Kendall promised to establish "a clear position before the summer." Until then, we wait to see if common sense finally prevails or if the UK government will continue sacrificing its people’s privacy to pretend that they’re doing something useful.