--- title: The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan | daily.dev description: The UK government has reversed plans to restrict VPN usage as part of its Online Safety push for children. Research commissioned by the government found that... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan | daily.dev og:description: The UK government has reversed plans to restrict VPN usage as part of its Online Safety push for children. Research commissioned by the government found that... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QTkKMIRvU.png og:image:alt: The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The UK government has reversed plans to restrict VPN usage as part of its Online Safety push for children. Research commissioned by the government found that while about a quarter of children aged 11-17 use VPNs, most do so for privacy reasons rather than to bypass age checks — only around 7% use VPNs to access age-restricted content. The primary workaround remains simply lying about one's date of birth. Instead of banning VPNs, the government is shifting responsibility to platforms, requiring them to implement robust age verification. Ofcom must report by October on what effective over-16 age checks look like. The decision was welcomed by digital-rights groups including Proton and Mozilla, who had warned that restricting VPNs would harm cybersecurity without meaningfully protecting children. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is the UK banning or restricting VPNs to stop kids bypassing age checks? No, the UK government decided not to limit VPNs as part of its online safety rules for children. Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan confirmed the decision, and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall stated VPNs have legitimate privacy and security uses. Instead, platforms must now take robust steps to detect and stop under-age users circumventing age checks, with Ofcom reporting by October on what that looks like. _Track how platform-level age verification requirements evolve as regulators shift the compliance burden, via daily.dev._ ### Why did the UK government decide not to restrict VPN use for child safety rules? A government-commissioned study of over 2,000 children found most VPN use among 11 to 17-year-olds was for privacy, not rule-breaking. Only about 7% used a VPN to reach age-restricted content, while nearly half of those bypassing checks simply entered a false birth date, making VPNs a minor factor compared to basic age-check evasion. _Developers weighing privacy tooling against compliance pressure can follow this policy shift on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#vpn](https://daily.dev/tags/vpn) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu"},"datePublished":"2026-07-16T15:21:37.955Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:09:19.760Z","description":"The UK government has reversed plans to restrict VPN usage as part of its Online Safety push for children. Research commissioned by the government found that...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1fcdf94ed92794edb5e199a5133b06c1?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1fcdf94ed92794edb5e199a5133b06c1?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy,vpn","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The UK drops its VPN restrictions plan"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-uk-drops-its-vpn-restrictions-plan-qtkkmirvu#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Is the UK banning or restricting VPNs to stop kids bypassing age checks?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, the UK government decided not to limit VPNs as part of its online safety rules for children. Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan confirmed the decision, and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall stated VPNs have legitimate privacy and security uses. Instead, platforms must now take robust steps to detect and stop under-age users circumventing age checks, with Ofcom reporting by October on what that looks like. Track how platform-level age verification requirements evolve as regulators shift the compliance burden, via daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did the UK government decide not to restrict VPN use for child safety rules?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A government-commissioned study of over 2,000 children found most VPN use among 11 to 17-year-olds was for privacy, not rule-breaking. Only about 7% used a VPN to reach age-restricted content, while nearly half of those bypassing checks simply entered a false birth date, making VPNs a minor factor compared to basic age-check evasion. Developers weighing privacy tooling against compliance pressure can follow this policy shift on daily.dev."}}]} ```