{"id":289818,"date":"2026-07-15T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:50:08","slug":"we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;We decided not to limit VPNs&#8217;: UK government U-turns on age-gating privacy tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools\">&#8216;We decided not to limit VPNs&#8217;: UK government U-turns on age-gating privacy tools<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools\">https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-07-15 11:24:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.techradar.com\">www.techradar.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul id=\"elk-171dd3b6-805f-11f1-879a-f3444539df83\">\n<li><strong>The UK government confirmed it will not limit VPNs<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Data reveals only 7-10% of teenagers use a VPN to bypass age checks<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Social media curfews, autoplay restrictions were also announced<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"elk-171dd60e-805f-11f1-932c-773e4d273948\">The UK government has officially scrapped the idea of restricting virtual private networks (VPNs) to enforce its impending social media bans, delivering a massive victory for digital privacy advocates.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on BBC Breakfast today, the government confirmed a major U-turn on the subject, with Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan stating: &#8220;We decided not to limit VPNs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-171dd60e-805f-11f1-932c-773e4d273948-2\">This was further cemented in a written parliamentary statement by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, who clarified that the government will not age-gate or ban the best VPN software because &#8220;VPNs have legitimate privacy and security uses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The announcement ends fears that sweeping age verification laws could inadvertently break online privacy for millions of adults.<\/p>\n<p>Cybersecurity experts and privacy groups previously warned that restricting these tools would be a disaster waiting to happen, prompting an open letter from the industry urging lawmakers to leave everyday privacy tools alone.<\/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<h2 id=\"privacy-wins-but-platforms-face-new-rules-3\">Privacy wins, but platforms face new rules<\/h2>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8216;We have decided not to limit VPNs&#8217;Online Saftey minister Kanishka Narayan told #BBCBreakfast the Government has decided not to restrict access to Virtual Private Networks (VPN) as part of a social media ban for under 16s, despite initially suggesting it would take action\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/pP94b81aeRJuly 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-171dd7bc-805f-11f1-a5a6-41bf46354c4b\">While VPNs are safe from a blanket government ban, the social media ban loophole hasn&#8217;t been completely ignored.<\/p>\n<p>Kendall confirmed the onus will now fall on social media platforms &#8220;to take robust steps to detect and prevent attempts by underage users to circumvent age assurance measures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To achieve this, the government has tasked Ofcom and the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) to report by October on how platforms can&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;We decided not to limit VPNs&#8217;: UK government U-turns on age-gating privacy tools https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/we-decided-not-to-limit-vpns-uk-government-u-turns-on-age-gating-privacy-tools Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/P4D2oewbzKcZMZ5rfhtTZh-1920-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289818","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\/289818"}],"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=289818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289820,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289818\/revisions\/289820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}