Virtual private networks are increasingly used to bypass online age verification
Protecting children online is a priority, with new rules being implemented requiring a minimum age for access to some services
The document explicitly frames VPNs as a regulatory gap, stating that some policymakers and child-safety advocates believe VPN access itself should require age verification
This is the end of privacy and anonymity right there - VPNs will become useless!
As a hypothetical, a VPN only has a major benefit in age verification in order to jump from a country that requires age verification (e.g. for a social media web site) to a country that does not require age verification.
So VPN is not itself a loophole provided that all countries legislate that age verification is required for the given web site. Or alternatively provided that the web site just requires age verification regardless of where the client IP address is located.
I donât welcome any of this but just pointing out that there are different angles from which this could be approached.
Maybe not useless if you provide your own VPN service - then you can age-verify yourself. LOL.
However if you really need the privacy and anonymity that a VPN gives you then providing your own VPN service is not a great option - since the VPN service and you together are inextricably and uniquely linked.
TOR is also VPN. Hard to belief EU will ban TOR and work against a lot of news paper and journalists. Free speech and press etc has higher values and so the EU court will have the last word.
Also hard to belief they actually can ban VPNs. FOSS will just build their own private VPN network and push it if required.
Most of the privacy does not come from VPNs, but from actually blocking trackers (script blockers).
Hard to believe the EU works against journalists? They already do.
https://diem25.org/how-the-eu-is-using-anti-russia-sanctions-to-criminalise-journalism/
Not hard to believe they do. Hard to believe they will be successful in this specific case. But of course there is always a chance.
Edit: know that topic you linked.
The article doesnât as such say anything about banning VPNs. The implication was that VPNs will have to perform age verification.
If you are paying for a VPN using a credit card then age verification wouldnât even be that big a deal because
a) you are kidding yourself if you think itâs anonymous, and
b) the VPN provider may even accept the credit card itself as âproofâ of age.
I think that true proof of age with a VPN provider would be a bit hair-raising. Almost by definition, you are located in a country that is different from the country where the provider is located. So, if forced to, I can provide an âAustralianâ drivers licence or passport to the VPN provider but what the hell is a provider located on the other side of the planet, who has no representation in Australia whatsoever, going to do in order to verify that info?
I can see the directions that this could go in and itâs not good âŚ