EU eyes VPN loophole as age checks tighten online safety

The European Parliamentary Research Service warns that VPNs are increasingly used to bypass online age-verification rules, calling it a regulatory gap as Europe tightens child-safety measures. Proposals range from requiring VPNs to verify age to privacy-preserving methods like double-blind verification, but experts caution that identity checks could weaken anonymity. The EU is considering updates to cybersecurity/online-safety laws, with parallels in the UK and Utah’s age-verification efforts and prior security flaws found in an EU verification app.