UK lawmakers have proposed amending the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to ban children under 16 from social media and virtual private networks, but legal experts warn the broad legislation would force adults to undergo mandatory age verification for numerous everyday services, potentially exposing their browsing data to government or hackers. The amendments aim to close loopholes in the Online Safety Act, which came into force in July 2025 to restrict children's access to harmful content, but critics argue the measures are poorly defined and lack clarity on what specific problems they address.
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UK lawmakers have proposed amending the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to ban children under 16 from social media and virtual private networks, but legal experts warn the broad legislation would force adults to undergo mandatory age verification for numerous everyday services, potentially exposing their browsing data to government or hackers. The amendments aim to close loopholes in the Online Safety Act, which came into force in July 2025 to restrict children's access to harmful content, but critics argue the measures are poorly defined and lack clarity on what specific problems they address.