The Internet Society UK Chapter has added its name to a joint open letter calling on the UK Government to protect the availability of virtual private networks (VPNs), even as it moves ahead with new measures to keep children safer online. The letter, addressed to Rt Hon. Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, was published on 9 July 2026, hosted by the VPN Trust Initiative and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition.
Background
The letter lands amid months of debate over how far the Government should go in restricting VPN use as part of its wider child-safety agenda. On January 21, 2026, the UK’s House of Lords passed amendments to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The amendment had sought to prohibit VPN providers from letting under-18s use their services to get around Online Safety Act age-checks, and ministers subsequently opened a three-month consultation, “Growing Up in the Online World“, that explicitly considered age-restricting or limiting children’s access to VPNs.
Kendall confirmed in a parliamentary statement on 15 July 2026 that the Government would not pursue an outright VPN ban or age-gating requirement, citing evidence that only a small share of children use VPNs specifically to evade age checks.
What the letter says
The coalition frames its position around a shared goal – protecting children – paired with a warning against measures that would undermine everyone’s privacy and security to do so. Its central arguments:
- VPNs are everyday cybersecurity infrastructure. The letter describes VPNs as tools that protect people on public Wi-Fi, support secure remote work, help students reach education networks safely, and let small businesses secure their systems.
- They matter most for at-risk groups. The signatories point to VPNs as essential protection for human rights defenders, journalists, domestic abuse survivors, and LGBTQ+ people facing heightened online risk.
- The evidence doesn’t support restriction. The letter cites Ofcom research finding that only around 3% of children had used a VPN to reach content meant for older audiences, and notes that in Australia, children more often circumvent age checks simply by not being asked or by giving false information, not by using VPNs.
- Age-gating VPNs would be counterproductive. Requiring identity checks to access a privacy tool would force everyone to hand over sensitive personal data, blocking VPN traffic reliably isn’t technically feasible, and clumsy restrictions risk pushing users toward unregulated, less trustworthy VPN services, leaving people, including children, less safe rather than more.
- A better path exists. The letter urges the Government to focus instead on enforcing platform obligations, strengthening parental controls, investing in digital literacy, and building safety and privacy in by design.
Who signed
The letter carries signatures from a broad mix of digital rights organisations, press-freedom groups, and VPN providers, including Amnesty International, Big Brother Watch, Defend Digital Me, ExpressVPN, Global Partners Digital, Index on Censorship, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, the Internet Society, Internet Society UK, Internews, IPVanish, Liberty, Mozilla, Mullvad VPN, Mysterium VPN, NordVPN, Open Rights Group, Proton, Reporters Without Borders, Stop Killing Games, Stop Killing Internet, Surfshark, Tuta, and the VPN Trust Initiative.
Why it matters for the Internet Society UK?
By co-signing, the Internet Society UK Chapter aligns itself with the Global Internet Society and a wide civil-society and industry coalition in defence of an open, secure Internet, consistent with the Chapter’s ongoing engagement on the “Growing Up in the Online World” consultation and its broader work on encryption, privacy, and age-verification policy. The letter positions child safety and Internet security as complementary goals rather than a trade-off, a framing that mirrors the UK Chapter’s own recent consultation responses on age verification and encryption.