Ministers have said details about action alongside the social media ban, including regarding VPN use, will come in July.
New VPN rules are set to be issued by the Labour Party government as part of the under-16 social media ban. The government has not revealed any plans to regulate them, but ministers have said details about action alongside the social media ban, including regarding VPN use, will come in July.
Children's minister Josh MacAlister told the BBC there were "options there about whether we could age-gate VPN use, which would be really welcome".
"We have more work to do to understand the effectiveness and accessibility of different methods, the availability of identity and age attributes at 16, and the privacy considerations of different existing and emerging methods," Ofcom has told the government.
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Technology secretary Liz Kendall told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC that the regulator needed to strengthen its enforcement powers and strategy amid concerns companies are not being effectively punished for breaking online safety rules.
Ms Kendall said: “We need to make sure that if fines are given and they’re not paid, we have to take it to the next step.”
On the search data, Richy George, chief revenue officer at IT-AMG, told City AM: “Within hours of the ban being confirmed, the nation’s teenagers appear to have been Googling how to get around it rather than disengaging from social media altogether.”
Baroness Liz Lloyd said there is “limited evidence on children’s use of VPNs,” and has said that the government has no plans to ban them.
However, the government did launch a consultation to “confront the full range of risks children face online”.
“This includes examining restrictions on children’s use of AI chatbots, as well as options to age-restrict or limit children’s VPN use where it undermines safety protections and changing the age of digital consent,” the government said.
Ms Kendall told Nick Ferrari: “I told MPs yesterday I'm going to come back to the House with a statement on the issue of VPNs in July.
"There are very strong views on both sides of this. For some people, it is about privacy, and it is the ability to use that is really held strongly by people.
"And for others, they say they should be banned because kids are using them to get around.
"Yes. And so I— the main thing that we've done is we've commissioned additional research on this because I've not been happy with the evidence.”
