House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

Summary

Last week saw the House of Lords pass a vote that would, if approved by the Government, introduce an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (CWSB) that aims to “prohibit the provision” of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to children (under 18s) in the UK. The goal is to stop children allegedly using VPNs to bypass age verification systems. According to the details on the Conservative-led amendment (92) page: “This new clause would require the Secretary of State to take action to promote and protect children’s wellbeing, and to further support child protective measures in the Online Safety Act, by prohibiting the provision to children in the United Kingdom of VPN services which can facilitate evasion of OSA age-gating processes.” NOTE: The OSA and Ofcom’s supporting codes are far-reaching and touch many websites and online services (big and small alike – both major social networks and small blogs etc.). The age verification rules are particularly controversial because of how they can be applied to many other internet sites and services, which often have nothing to do with porn. The amendment itself passed with 207 votes in favour and 159 against (here), with the majority of yes votes coming from the Conservative Party and the majority of the no votes coming from the Labour Party. Crucially, this suggests that the amendment, at least in its current form, is currently opposed by the party of Government and so may struggle to survive once the Bill is returned to the House of Commons. Part of the reason for the government’s objection is that they’re separately consulting on some of these issues and have yet to reach a conclusion. The government have previously expressed that there are “no current plans to ban the use of VPNs“, although that doesn’t mean to say they won’t try to impose age-based restrictions on them. Amendment text After Clause 27 insert the following new Clause— “Action to prohibit the provision of VPN services to children in the Un...