Tomorrow, on Wednesday, July 15, Labour's Liz Kendall is set to deliver a further statement to the Commons detailing new regulations on VPN bans and social media restrictions for under-16s. The announcement follows a previous promise of an update in July and will cover VPN restrictions, AI chatbot rules, the digital age of consent, and curfews or doomscrolling breaks for teenagers.
Scope of the New Regulations
The statement will expand on the government's plan to ban social media for under-16s, a policy first outlined earlier this year. The new measures include restrictions on VPN usage to prevent children from bypassing age verification checks, rules governing AI chatbots that could harm minors, a potential change to the digital age of consent, and mandated breaks to curb excessive scrolling (doomscrolling).
Legal and Privacy Concerns Raised
International law firm RPC has voiced concerns ahead of the announcement, stating: "Children, including teenagers who are nearly adults, have strong Convention rights. We would expect there to be legal challenges both from children and platforms to any legislation which introduces a blanket ban on teenagers." RPC also highlighted technical and privacy issues: "There are currently fewer options available to verify age for users under 16, because methods such as email-based age estimation and credit checks are unavailable. This is another example of the government's rush to legislate without considering whether what they are asking of the platforms is technically feasible or even necessary. More thought needs to be given to the impact on adults who will have to prove that they are not children, who will need to upload some form of sensitive personal information to each of the platforms they use, which raises serious privacy concerns."
Government Research on VPN Use by Children
The Labour government published research on Tuesday revealing how children use VPNs to bypass age verification. The report found: "Around a quarter of children use a VPN, and use rises sharply with age. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) have heard of VPNs. A quarter (26%) say they have used one in their lifetime and around a fifth (22%) have used one in the last 3 months. Lifetime use rises from 17% of 11- to 12-year-olds to 31% of 16- to 17-year-olds." The research also linked VPN use to exposure to harmful content: "VPN users who bypass have a particularly high association with seeing harmful content: 64% of children who used a VPN in their lifetime saw harmful content after bypassing, compared with 43% of those who bypassed but have not used a VPN in their lifetime." The government stated the findings could "inform future policy development in this area."
