The EPRS warning follows a long-running pattern in which VPNs have been used to work around online restrictions, from geographic content controls to other access limits. The immediate policy issue is that age-verification rules can be effective at the service level while remaining bypassable through location masking.
Related UK coverage gives the concern practical weight: Ofcom reported a sharp rise in daily VPN use after pornography-site age-limit enforcement began. That makes VPNs a central implementation problem for age-assurance regimes, not merely a technical edge case.
First-order effects
EU policymakers gain a documented rationale to examine whether age-verification legislation needs changes to address VPN-enabled bypasses.
VPN providers and the services subject to age checks face heightened scrutiny over how location signals and age-assurance controls interact.
Second-order effects
Age-restricted platforms and regulators may put more emphasis on verification approaches that do not rely solely on a user’s apparent location, raising implementation pressure on those platforms.
Greater policy attention could force VPN companies to defend the legitimate privacy and security uses of their products while distinguishing themselves from services associated with circumvention or criminal activity.
Third-order effects
If VPN use continues to rise after age-gating mandates, European online-safety policy will face a structural trade-off between enforceable access controls and the availability of privacy tools designed to mask network location.
The episode points toward age assurance becoming an ecosystem-wide compliance question involving platforms, network intermediaries, and privacy services rather than a requirement imposed only on adult-content sites.
The trend: Age-verification mandates are increasingly driving a policy contest over whether privacy-preserving connectivity tools can coexist with enforceable online access restrictions.
Virtual private networks #VPN 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 Read👉 https://link.europa.eu/FGfr6C #DSA @EP_Justice @FZarzalejos …
❌ Just NO! VPNs are a core element of digital citizen's rights & a free society. Prohibiting VPNs under the guise of children's rights is not acceptable. As MEP I will continue to fight for digital privacy rights & against prohibiting VPNs.
Don't say that privacy advocates did not warn you that age verification for children is a Trojan horse for everyone and pretty soon you will be handing over a passport and doing a face scan to access the internet. You've been warned. Give folks an inch and they take a yard.
SYBAU this is, yet again, not about kids, and everyone can see that by now lol whoever supports these dystopian surveillance bullshit should never be in power and no matter what they will never get my vote or support
THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs THEY ARE GOING TO BAN VPNs
This is such a poor take on VPN usage, it's shocking. Incredibly disappointing that the EU, and who ever is advising such research service, is taking this stance.
At a time of constant cyberattacks, EU institutions should defend VPNs as essential tools for online safety, free expression, and secure communication — not echo authoritarian talking points against encryption. Digital privacy is human rights infrastructure. Strip it away, and