Age verification failed. Regulating VPNs won't fix it

Date:
Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:22:16 +0000

Description:
Regulators are targeting VPNs to enforce age checks, but that confuses the symptom with the real problem.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Governments are beginning to look beyond age verification itself and toward the tools people use to bypass it. In Australia, recently released Freedom of Information documents revealed the eSafety Commissioner wants technology companies to actively detect and block VPNs used to circumvent age checks. In the UK, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has also suggested the government could revisit restrictions on VPNs
. Andrew Frost Moroz Social Links Navigation

Privacy-focused tech innovator and the creator of Aloha Browser. Viewed individually, these proposals may seem limited. Taken together, they illustrate how VPNs are increasingly being treated as part of the enforcement problem, when in reality, they are part of the security infrastructure that businesses, journalists, remote employees and millions of ordinary users rely on every day. In the United States alone, half of the countrys remote workers use a VPN. Age verification laws were introduced with the objective of making it harder for minors to access harmful content, but it produced an unintended consequence. Across multiple markets, growing numbers of users are turning to VPNs because they don't want to upload government IDs or facial scans to websites they neither trust nor expect to visit regularly. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Folding VPNs into the regulatory framework confuses the symptom with the problem. Banning or restricting VPNs rarely stops the underlying behavior. Instead, it pushes users toward less regulated workarounds while handing governments a new lever to tighten control over what citizens can access online. Having spent years building a privacy -first browser, Ive learned
that internet users adapt far faster than regulation. You can't regulate intent Every proposal to restrict VPN use runs into the same technical problem. A VPN connection doesn't explain why someone is using it. A journalist protecting sources, a remote employee on a hotel network, and someone dodging an age check look identical from the network's side, and enforcement can't tell them apart. You may like Are VPNs under threat in Australia? FOI documents reveal plans to block age verification workarounds The best age verification VPNs verify your age securely in regions such as Australia, the US, and the UK First your age, next your identity: Inside the 'hack' that broke the EU age verification app's privacy promises

Any enforcement mechanism built to catch age-check bypass has to sit on top
of that same traffic, and it has no way to separate a teenager evading
harmful content from an accountant filing a report over a hotel connection.

Stigmatizing VPNs further won't change the underlying demand either. People don't stop wanting privacy because a tool becomes less socially acceptable. They find another way to get both, often through channels with far less transparency than the ones being restricted. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The precedent is important The concern here is sharper because of where these
laws tend to originate. Rules written in a few high-profile markets often become templates, and other governments treat them as proven models
regardless of how well they work. If privacy tools must identify users to function, that expectation can eventually reach encrypted messaging, cloud storage , and other technologies businesses depend on daily.

A company that accepts identity checks on its VPN traffic today has little basis to object when the same logic gets applied to its encrypted messaging platform or its cloud storage provider tomorrow. The infrastructure being debated under the banner of child safety is the same infrastructure that
keeps corporate communications and data secure. Privacy tools are not the problem An estimated 1.7 billion people worldwide use VPNs, a scale that should give policymakers pause before treating them primarily as a way to bypass age verification. For most users, VPNs are part of everyday internet security, protecting communications and safeguarding public Wi-Fi
connections. What to read next No, it's not age verification privacy is the top reason UK children use a VPN Age-restricting VPN users will create
massive cybersecurity risks, warns Firefox creator 'A cybersecurity disaster waiting to happen' The VPN industry reacts to the UK's teen social media ban

The spikes in VPN usage tell a consistent story. The largest surges follow political unrest, as seen during Myanmar's turmoil, or when a popular
platform is suddenly blocked, as happened when Turkey restricted Wikipedia
for several years.

Laws tied to age verification drive new sign-ups too, albeit on a smaller scale, mostly from people who don't want to upload an ID or a face scan to reach a site they'd rather not be seen visiting, adult sites being the clearest case. Not all verification is equal It's worth separating two different situations.

Verifying age on a social network, where someone already has an identity and
a reason to be recognized, differs from verifying age on an adult site, where the point is precisely not to be identified.

The first one is reasonable. On the other hand, I don't think anyone should hand over an ID or a facial scan for the second, given the risk of that data leaking and being used for blackmail. The technology already exists, with limits Privacy-preserving age verification is real, and working versions already exist, though it's worth being precise about what they can and can't guarantee. Proving something with zero trace anywhere in the system is extremely hard to achieve, and trust must always sit somewhere.

A workable model separates the party confirming someone's age from the party they're visiting. A trusted intermediary checks eligibility once and issues a token in return. That token isn't a currency and isn't tied to a wallet or an account, it's simply cryptographic proof that can't be traced back to the person it was issued to. No one can identify who is presenting the token later.

It works like an ID card with the photo, name and number stripped out,
leaving only a yes or no answer to one question. That token lives on the person's own device. The service confirming eligibility never holds it, the user does. Privacy and verification can coexist Protecting minors is a legitimate policy objective, and rejecting today's approach isn't the same as rejecting age verification altogether. The question is how to achieve it without asking millions of adults to surrender more personal information than necessary. Parents are best placed to decide what their children can access using tools that already exist. Public policy should support that role.

Governments should encourage age verification systems that collect the
minimum information needed to confirm eligibility, while letting privacy
tools do the job they were built for. The real work is building age verification people can trust without asking them to surrender their privacy. Regulating VPNs won't get us there. We've featured the best secure VPN provider. This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives , our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology
industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit



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