According to TechRadar, a cross-party group of House of Lords Peers has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would ban children in the UK from using VPNs. If passed, the government would be forced to enforce the restrictions within 12 months. Under the proposed rules, VPN providers would have to verify the age of all UK users using “highly effective” age-assurance methods to ensure no one under 18 can access the service. The requirements would apply to any VPN that markets to UK consumers or is used by a “significant number” of people in the country. The peers explicitly stated the goal is to stop VPNs from facilitating evasion of the Online Safety Act’s age-gating processes. The amendment is currently at the Report Stage and must still pass votes in both the Lords and the House of Commons to become law.
The Privacy Paradox
Here’s the immediate, glaring problem. What does “highly effective” age verification mean in practice? Basically, it means handing over a government ID or submitting to a facial scan. For a VPN service, that’s completely backwards. The entire point of a VPN is to enhance your privacy and anonymity online. Forcing users to submit the most sensitive personal data imaginable to use one completely guts its core value proposition. It’s a classic case of a regulatory solution creating a bigger problem than the one it’s trying to solve. The amendment’s backers are worried kids will use VPNs to dodge age gates on social media or adult sites. But the cure they’re prescribing might just kill the patient.
Uncertain Future & Broader Context
Now, it’s important to note this is just a proposed amendment. It has a long parliamentary journey ahead and faces what TechRadar calls “likely resistance” in the House of Commons. But the fact it’s even on the table is telling. It shows how lawmakers are laser-focused on the Online Safety Act and see any tool that can circumvent it as a threat to be neutralized. And it’s not happening in a vacuum. Another proposed amendment mentioned would require “tamper-proof” software on all devices sold in the UK to block child sexual abuse material. Privacy advocates, like the Open Rights Group’s James Baker quoted in the piece, are already calling these ideas “Orwellian in scope.” So we’re seeing a broader push for pre-emptive, device-level controls that privacy groups find deeply alarming.
What It Means For VPNs and Users
For VPN companies, this is a nightmare scenario. Their business model is built on trust. If this law passed, they’d face an impossible choice: radically redesign their service to become data-hungry age verifiers, or completely pull out of the UK market. Neither is good. And for adult users in the UK? You’d lose a critical privacy tool unless you’re willing to fork over your passport scan to a company you only pay a few quid a month to. That’s a huge ask. It also sets a dangerous precedent. If the UK can mandate this for VPNs, what’s to stop other governments from following suit with even more draconian rules? The technical details, like how you even enforce this on a global internet, are a mess. But the intent is clear: to lock down the digital landscape in the name of child safety, with privacy as a major casualty. You can read the amendment text in the parliamentary documents and follow the bill’s progress here.
