The European Parliament to Discuss VPN Restrictions in the EU: Details
11 May 02:18
The European Union may begin discussing restrictions on the use of VPN services. This involves the possible introduction of mandatory age verification when using such tools, according to a report titled “Virtual Private Networks and the Protection of Children Online,” compiled by staff at the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
The report notes that in EU countries where children are legally prohibited from using social media, VPN technology has been widely adopted to circumvent age verification.
The authors cite politicians and child rights advocates who argue, as noted, that this practice is a “loophole in the law” that must be closed. In particular, Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has called for restricting access to VPN services to adults only. As “cybersecurity and privacy legislation evolves, VPN services may come under stricter scrutiny”—specifically due to upcoming amendments to the EU Cybersecurity Act aimed at preventing the use of VPNs to bypass age restrictions, the report notes.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
VPN operators and human rights advocates, whose views are cited by the EPRS, note that mandatory identity verification for VPN access undermines anonymity protections and creates additional risks related to surveillance and data collection. Recently, vulnerabilities were discovered in the EU’s official age verification web application that pose risks to citizens’ security and privacy, reports the Cyberinsider portal.
The warning from European Parliament analysts about possible VPN restrictions came as governments in Europe and other regions are expanding online child safety regulations, which require platforms to verify users’ ages before granting access to adult content or age-restricted content.
Read us on Telegram: important topics – without censorship
