{"id":249192,"date":"2026-05-19T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/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\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T05:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:40:08","slug":"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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/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\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands off the VPNs \u2014 Mozilla warns UK regulators that age-restricting VPNs &#8220;would undermine the privacy and security of all users,&#8221; while failing to protect kids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/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\">Hands off the VPNs \u2014 Mozilla warns UK regulators that age-restricting VPNs &#8220;would undermine the privacy and security of all users,&#8221; while failing to protect kids<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/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\">https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/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<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-19 05:31:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.techradar.com\">www.techradar.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul id=\"elk-59049878-2ca6-418c-9a59-77e50937b227\">\n<li><strong>The UK is consulting on whether to age-restrict VPNs to prevent minors from bypassing age checks<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mozilla warns that circumvention is a &#8220;marginal reason&#8221; kids use VPNs<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The company argues that forcing all users to verify their age will create massive data privacy risks<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"elk-2b810bf6-d1b3-4ec8-bfdb-1af8366ba866\">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&#8217;s biggest privacy advocates.<\/p>\n<p>Mozilla, the non-profit tech giant behind the Firefox browser and Mozilla VPN, has warned regulators that age-restricting virtual private networks (VPNs) &#8220;would undermine the privacy and security of all users&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-2b810bf6-d1b3-4ec8-bfdb-1af8366ba866-2\">In a formal submission to the UK&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the company stated in its public submission.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-circumvention-myth-3\">The circumvention myth<\/h2>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\">\n<p><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: SolStock\/via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-08cd4a15-eee9-42b5-bc2f-09a0fb01533c\">The core of the government&#8217;s argument is that children are primarily using VPNs as circumvention software to bypass age gates on social media and adult sites. However, Mozilla&#8217;s submission highlights that this is a &#8220;marginal reason&#8221; for VPN use among minors.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/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\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hands off the VPNs \u2014 Mozilla warns UK regulators that age-restricting VPNs &#8220;would undermine the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/m8MHYoBDtdts8LcmZEoXEk-1344-80.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249194,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249192\/revisions\/249194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}