Hands off the VPNs — Mozilla warns UK regulators that age-restricting VPNs “would undermine the privacy and security of all users,” while failing to protect kids
Publish Date: 2026-05-19 05:31:00
Source Domain: www.techradar.com
- The UK is consulting on whether to age-restrict VPNs to prevent minors from bypassing age checks
- Mozilla warns that circumvention is a “marginal reason” kids use VPNs
- The company argues that forcing all users to verify their age will create massive data privacy risks
The UK government is currently exploring new ways to protect children online, but its latest proposals have drawn sharp criticism from one of the internet’s biggest privacy advocates.
Mozilla, the non-profit tech giant behind the Firefox browser and Mozilla VPN, has warned regulators that age-restricting virtual private networks (VPNs) “would undermine the privacy and security of all users”.
In a formal submission to the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Mozilla pushed back against a recent consultation that considers age-gating the best VPN services to stop minors from bypassing age checks mandated by the Online Safety Act.
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According to Mozilla, forcing every user to verify their age just to access a VPN would create massive new data vulnerabilities without actually solving the problem of youth online safety.
“The protections children need are protections from the platforms collecting their data, not restrictions on the tools they use to shield themselves from that collection,” the company stated in its public submission.
The circumvention myth
(Image credit: SolStock/via Getty Images)
The core of the government’s argument is that children are primarily using VPNs as circumvention software to bypass age gates on social media and adult sites. However, Mozilla’s submission highlights that this is a “marginal reason” for VPN use among minors.
Citing research from Internet Matters published in December 2025, Mozilla noted that only 8% of children had used a VPN in the previous twelve months. Of those, 66% did so to protect their personal data. A later study found that only 7% used a VPN to circumvent age restrictions, with most…
