{"id":50823,"date":"2026-01-26T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=50823"},"modified":"2026-01-26T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:51:10","slug":"uk-age-verification-for-vpns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/26\/uk-age-verification-for-vpns\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Age Verification for VPNs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/uk-house-of-lords-votes-to-extend-age-verification-to-vpns\">Cindy Harper<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=46763548\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/uk-house-of-lords-votes-to-extend-age-verification-to-vpns\">\n<p>The UK House of Lords has voted to extend &ldquo;age assurance&rdquo; requirements, effectively age verification mandates, to <a href=\"https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/uk-online-safety-act-privacy-surveillance-vpn-anonymity-regulation\">virtual private networks<\/a> (VPNs) and a wide range of online platforms under the <a href=\"https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/uk-lawmakers-propose-mandatory-on-device-surveillance-and-vpn-age-verification\">Children&rsquo;s Wellbeing and Schools Bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The decision deepens the reach of the already-controversial <a href=\"https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/uk-age-verification-privacy-backlash\">Online Safety Act<\/a>, linking child safety goals to mechanisms that could have severe effects on private communication and digital autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>In effect, most interactive online platforms would now need to collect and verify age data from users, even where those services are not primarily aimed at children.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Two other amendments, both more technologically intrusive, were discussed but rejected.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s not yet law.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/13\/uk-child-protections-and-messaging-backdoor\/\">UK Child Protections and Messaging Backdoor<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/26\/texas-age-verification-suspended\/\">Texas Age Verification Suspended<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/29\/imgur-blocks-uk-users-over-age-verification\/\">Imgur Blocks UK Users Over Age Verification<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/01\/uk-again-wants-icloud-backdoor\/\">UK Again Wants iCloud Backdoor<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/uk-online-safety-act\/\">UK Online Safety Act<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cindy Harper (via Hacker News): The UK House of Lords has voted to extend &ldquo;age assurance&rdquo; requirements, effectively age verification mandates, to virtual private networks (VPNs) and a wide range of online platforms under the Children&rsquo;s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The decision deepens the reach of the already-controversial Online Safety Act, linking child safety goals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-01-26T20:51:13Z","apple_news_api_id":"7c1d8214-c415-4b1f-a6db-c2138dec18a6","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-01-26T20:51:13Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AfB2CFMQVSx-m28ITjewYpg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1650,209,2166,1132],"class_list":["post-50823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-children","tag-legal","tag-united-kingdom","tag-virtual-private-network-vpn"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50824,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50823\/revisions\/50824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}