The EU signals possible restriction of VPNs
Recent comments by EU Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen have intensified debate around the future of VPNs in Europe, even without an explicit call for a ban. Cybersecurity experts and privacy advocates interpret the rhetoric as part of a broader shift in regulatory thinking that frames VPNs as tools for circumvention rather than essential security infrastructure. Similar debates are unfolding globally, with Utah introducing VPN-related restrictions through age verification laws, the UK advancing obligations to prevent circumvention, and France openly signaling that VPN regulation may follow new youth social media bans.
Mandatory age verification has become the preferred policy response to concerns about children’s online safety. Since the UK introduced such rules for access to “legal but harmful” content, governments across the EU and beyond have followed. A consistent pattern has emerged: whenever age checks are enforced, VPN usage rises. This increase appears largely driven by adults seeking to avoid biometric identification or excessive data collection, rather than minors accessing restricted content, according to child safety organizations.
Treating VPNs as a loophole carries significant legal and technical risks. VPNs are widely used by individuals and businesses to secure communications, protect sensitive data, and reduce exposure to cybercrime. Industry groups and civil society organizations warn that restricting or weakening VPNs would undermine online safety and contradict the stated objectives of child protection laws. From a legal perspective, such measures also risk clashing with EU principles on data protection, proportionality, and security by design.
Enforcement poses an additional challenge. Blocking VPNs at scale is technically impractical, as demonstrated by repeated failures in more restrictive jurisdictions. Age-verifying every user regardless of location would impose disproportionate compliance costs and legal uncertainty for service providers, potentially amounting to several million euros annually for larger platforms. For EU policymakers, the central question is whether limited circumvention justifies measures that could erode trust in digital security tools and weaken the broader online safety ecosystem.
