Overview
- The European Parliamentary Research Service issued a briefing this week that calls VPNs a “loophole” in online age checks and flags the gap for lawmakers revising EU rules.
- The paper points to sharp adoption after new laws, including a 1,400% jump in Proton VPN signups in the UK and an 1,800% spike in downloads for one app in the first month.
- England’s Children’s Commissioner has urged restricting VPN services to adults, while privacy advocates say forcing ID to use VPNs would strip away anonymity.
- Utah’s SB 73 took effect in early May and treats anyone physically in the state as subject to its age checks even if a VPN hides their IP address.
- Technical risks remain, as researchers last month found the EU’s own age-check app stored biometric images in unencrypted locations and could be bypassed.