Ah, and now we see the real reason for "protecting the children". Replace "children" with "media companies".

Actually encryption is a loophole as well so better take a second third fourth look at that while we're at it.

Shitty title, it is not (yet) a EU position that VPNs need to be restricted. The article refers to a paper from EPRS aimed at (mis) informing EU lawmakers. The paper only says that ‘some’ consider VPNs a loophole that needs closing and states without providing any evidence that VPNs are increasingly used by minors to bypass age restrictions.

Why can't the EU just play the Valve card, and just do nothing and win? Fucking do nothing rather than this shit.

If kids are using VPNs, most of the time it will be because their parents made that decision for them; most aren't using their parents' credit cards to buy a VPN subscription to bypass blocks without their parents knowing. Age verification advocates argue that it puts more control in the hands of parents, but in the case of VPNs, taking that control away goes entirely against that argument.

It's not about giving parents control, or ultimately even about kids at all; people want to impose their personal morals on all of society via governmental enforcement mechanisms. Social media platforms are promoting it because age verification is beneficial to them as a legally-mandated anti-bot mechanism, increasing their advertising revenue by guaranteeing user suitability for advertisers.

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has warned that virtual private networks (VPNs) are increasingly being used to bypass online age-verification systems, describing the trend as “a loophole in the legislation that needs closing.”

So a warning about just that. So the EU did not and neither did EPRS warn, they did in fact not call VPNs a loophole that needs closing, which would include any VPN.

That said, watch out for slippery slopes!

Age verification is such a joke on multiple levels

I don’t see how this could be easily enforced if every website uses encryption. Once it’s encrypted it’s pretty much impossible for anyone to identify what’s what.

Funny, seeing as EU itself is a loophole in democracy.

The mouth of the average EU legislator is a "loophole that needs closing".

Looks like it was never about “protect the children”

Politicians should fuck off

The EU used to be more biased towards about rational debate founded on objectivity. The megabucks minorities are slowly exerting influence.

The more I think about it the more I suspect it’s going to be to the benefit of the identity providers that will collect even more data about everyone needing to prove their age. I can’t think of any other group of financial interests over this.

From user qnpnpmqppnp on hacker news

This title seems misleading.

The EP paper appears to be highlighting the existence of a debate regarding VPN.

Relevant quote:

"Some argue that this is a loophole in the legislation that needs closing and call for age verification to be required for VPNs as well. In response, some VPN providers argue that they do not share information with third parties and state that their services are not intended for use by children in the first place. The Children's Commissioner for England has called for VPNs to be restricted to adult use only.

While privacy advocates argue that imposing age-verification requirements on VPNs would pose significant risk to anonymity and date protection, child-safety campaigners claim that their widespread use by minors requires a regulatory response. Pornhub and other large pornography platforms have reportedly lost web traffic following the enforcement of age-verification rules in the UK, while VPN apps have reached the top of download rankings."

Of course I'm not saying the EU won't regulate VPNs, but nowhere in this paper is "the EU" stating that VPNs need closing.

Need to get my ham radio antenna set up. Dunno how much longer this internet thing's going to be anything but a work requirement.

As I already posted in the original post, this is not true.

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has warned that virtual private networks (VPNs) are increasingly being used to bypass online age-verification systems, describing the trend as “a loophole in the legislation that needs closing.”

So first the EPRS, not "the EU".

Then they do not blanket warns against all and every VPN or anything.

This is so misleading.

Europe falling into facism

The end of this road is requiring a digital ID that signs all of your packets so all traffic can be classified and linked to an individual.

It's not about age verification, this is just the "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" step, VPNs are the biggest threat after that, but anything that enables anonymity will be a target.

We'll eventually get to the national security excuses or some digital equivalent of 9/11 will provide the excuse for a neo-PATRIOT act, ending digital anonymity (just give up a bit of liberty for security, no big deal!).

So stupid. My employer's laptops given to every employee are pre-configured to vpn back to the company network. What part of "private communication" says this use case should be in any way distinguishable from some teen cruising porn sites?

Welcome to online privacy made, with so much love, in the EU.

Wow the EU bureaucracy really is going all in on this idiocy.