In response to the UK Government’s call for consultation for “Growing Up in an Online World”, The VPN Trust Initiative’s members and leadership collaborated on a coordinated response.
In particular we wanted to highlight the grave risks introduced by limiting access to fundamental digital safety tools such as VPNs in the name of child safety, which could inadvertently expose children to greater harms. This is an even more important conversation to have in the current global online environment, when encryption and secure communications are being undermined by harmful legislation.
Our statement reads in part:
VPN technology is widely used across society to secure communications and protect sensitive data. Businesses rely on VPNs to protect trade secrets and customer information. Universities and schools depend on them to provide secure access to learning resources and internal systems. Journalists, lawyers, healthcare professionals, government officials, legislators, and other public servants regularly use VPNs to protect confidential communications, and are often required to do so.
Families and young people also rely on VPNs. Students use them to access university networks safely from home and on public Wi-Fi. Young people use VPNs to reduce their exposure to tracking, scams, and harassment. Vulnerable teenagers, including LGBTQ+ youth, children experiencing domestic abuse, and those seeking sensitive health or counselling information, often rely on privacy tools to explore the Internet safely.
Treating VPNs primarily as a “loophole” is a complete misunderstanding of their role. The same encrypted technology used to protect corporate and government networks helps individuals protect their own privacy and security. Policies that weaken or restrict VPNs risk reducing online safety for the very users these proposals are intended to protect, without delivering commensurate benefits.
You can read the entire document below, and we encourage you to share it with your colleagues in the internet infrastructure industry.
We also invite you to see two related Internet Infrastructure i2Coalition (i2Coalition) initiatives:
– DNS at Risk
– Encryption at Risk
These ongoing projects document and contextualize the threats that core Internet infrastructure is facing.
About i2Coalition’s VPN Trust Initiative
i2Coalition’s VPN Trust Initiative (VTI) is an industry-led consortium that promotes consumer safety and privacy online by increasing understanding of VPNs and strengthening business practices in an industry that already protects millions of Internet users. The VTI leverages firsthand knowledge to advocate, create, vet, and validate guidelines that strengthen trust and transparency and mitigate risk for users.
To learn more about the VTI, click here.
(Featured image by Ron Lach)