A U.K. government official wants tougher rules to stop kids from using VPNs to dodge the country’s latest online safety laws.
The Online Safety Act, which went into effect this summer, puts new legal pressure on online platforms, including search engines and social media sites, to protect users from harmful content. The laws are mostly aimed at keeping children away from porn and other “harmful” material tied to self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders.
One of the act’s main provisions is that pornography sites and platforms with user-uploaded content must use technology to verify or estimate a user’s age. That typically means requiring people to upload a government-issued ID or a photo of themselves to prove they meet the age requirement.