- Privacy tech advocates are urging the UK “not to undermine the open web“
- This comes as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill became law
- A national consultation on online harms is also ongoing
A coalition made up of digital rights groups and privacy-first tech developers is urging the UK government “not to undermine the open web.”
Nineteen organizations, including some of the best VPN services — Proton, Mullvad, ExpressVPN, and IPVanish — Mozilla, the Tor Project, and privacy advocates, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published an open letter on Tuesday (May 5) to directly address policymakers.
The coalition warns that, while trying to address pressing questions on children’s safety and online harms, UK policymakers are pursuing “blunt policy interventions,” including banning access to some online services.
These measures, according to the signatories, “will do little to improve young people’s experiences online, and instead undermine the web and infringe on human rights.”
The outcry comes as the controversial Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill became law last week. The Act introduces fresh new online restrictions for young people, alongside an obligation for service providers to take “reasonable anti-circumvention measures.”
The government also launched a national consultation on online harms — open until May 26, 2026 — arguing that VPNs may be age-restricted if the consultation found these tools guilty of undermining online safety protections.
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act: why experts are worried
Under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, the Secretary of State will now have the authority to introduce regulations that compel internet service providers to prevent or limit children’s access to specific services or functionalities. These restrictions may include screentime, location sharing, and more.
According to digital rights and privacy tech experts, such an approach is flawed as it fails to ensure online services are designed to uphold children’s rights and interests by default.
Furthermore, experts believe that access restrictions could endanger the privacy and security of all internet users by requiring everyone to verify their ages.
“Existing age assurance technologies are either insufficiently accurate, undermine privacy and data security, or are not widely available across populations,” the letter reads, with the experts warning that age verification mandates could also “risk cementing the dominance” of Big Tech giants.
This is not the first time the privacy tech world has raised the alarm against widespread age verification laws.
Last week, Proton’s CEO and Founder Andy Yen deemed the global age verification push “the death of anonymity online.” Earlier in March, over 400 scientists also called for a halt to mandatory age verification until there’s “scientific consensus” that such a practice doesn’t create more harm than good.
The “VPN loophole”
Beyond age verification and new online restrictions, the signtorires are especially worried about the effort to close what’s been deemed the “VPN loophole.” That’s the idea that VPN services are used as a circumvention tool to bypass mandatory age checks.
VPNs, however, are essential privacy and security tools that people use every day to mitigate online harms. “Restricting the use of privacy-preserving technologies undermines efforts to empower users to navigate the web safely and to develop digital literacy,” said Mozilla.
Despite the Lord’s initial idea of an outright ban on VPNs for children not ending up in the final text, the Act still includes an obligation for service providers to take “reasonable anti-circumvention measures.”
The fate of VPNs hasn’t been decided yet, either. New restrictions could be introduced following the ongoing online safety consultation.
On April 23, the VPN Trust Initiative published a statement warning UK lawmakers that VPN restrictions could expose kids to “greater harms.” Other groups, including Mozilla, are set to share further stances in the coming days.
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chiara.castro@futurenet.com (Chiara Castro)
