A VPN ban wouldn't work without extreme "digital authoritarianism," says ORG

Since the UK Online Safety Act's enforced age verifications came into play, more and more people have been using VPNs. Some in the UK government seem to be unhappy with this development and have suggested that steps be taken to prevent it, though online privacy advocacy organization the Open Rights Group (ORG) has criticized the UK government for this, suggesting it creates further problems.

The best VPN have connection points in loads of countries, so those in the UK just have to choose to connect through a server somewhere that doesn't require age verification. Despite being a very obvious loophole, so far, nothing has been done to prevent it.

Now, with children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza describing VPN use as "absolutely a loophole that needs closing," the ORG has highlighted that VPNs aren't necessarily the issue, and has launched a campaign to reform the OSA. Given that the Act has affected everything from dating apps to Spotify, along with health-related and political content, its campaign looks likely to build momentum.

Following questions in the House of Lords (the UK's second chamber) concerning the increased use of VPNs, the ORG's James Baker highlighted that "age-gating VPNs" puts online safety at risk in other ways.

"Younger children are unlikely to be using a VPN while teenagers may be able to find clever workarounds to any restrictions," including "proxy sites, Tor, P2P sharing, borrowed account credentials, or simply accessing content on alternative platforms sites," he says. "Adults use VPNs as they have low-trust in age assurance technologies and their [use] would likely reduce if the Government introduced higher standards of data protection and privacy for age-checks."

Baker concludes by saying: "Detecting or banning VPNs is not technically feasible without extreme levels of digital authoritarianism."

Teenagers may want to use a VPN for gaming, or they might just want to tighten their privacy when connecting to the internet via public WiFi. Whatever their reasons, if VPN usage is restricted, these people will probably end up using alternatives like unsafe proxy sites, which will inevitably open a whole other can of worms.

Our recommended VPN partner is NordVPN, so if you haven't already, now is the time to sign up. It can help enhance your experience in videogames, keep you safe on public WiFi, and help keep your internet searches private.

Read our Warzone VPN and Minecraft VPN guides for more insight into what exactly a VPN can do for your gaming experience.