The majority of British adults believe the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) should be banned for minors as users flock to the service to avoid age restrictions put in place following the Online Safety Act.
A new poll from YouGov found that 55% of UK adults were in favour of banning VPNs for under-18s, with concern that legislative efforts to prevent children from accessing harmful digital content are being undermined by the technology.
VPNs allow users to connect their devices to servers from various countries, meaning that geo-specific laws regarding internet use can be avoided entirely.
Already a popular service, the use of VPNs has exploded in the UK following the enforcement of age restriction for adult content, including internet pornography, as per the Online Safety Act.
One prominent provider, Proton VPN, told UKTN that signups from UK-based users surged by almost 2,000% in the immediate hours following the enforcement of age restriction requirements on 25 July.
The Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC Newsnight that the VPN “loophole” needed to be closed.
She said: “Of course, we need age verification on VPNs – it’s absolutely a loophole that needs closing and that’s one of my major recommendations.”
Not all of the new VPN users are children, however, with numerous critics of the act of various ages keen to avoid complying with the new restrictions that require adults to submit personal information – digital copies of IDs, credit cards or selfies for age estimation scans – to continue accessing certain content.
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