Mozilla has joined a coalition of 19 digital rights organizations and technology providers in a joint statement, urging UK policymakers not to undermine the open web in their efforts to protect young people online.
Our mission is grounded in the belief that the internet must remain open and accessible to all, and that privacy and security online are fundamental. Around the globe, we are witnessing blunt policy interventions like age gates or restrictions on VPNs that put these values at risk. Child safety is a complex and central issue to us all, and as we have said before, Mozilla supports robust, proportionate safeguards for minors. However, we are concerned that mandatory age verification or VPN restrictions undermine online privacy and security, people’s ability to express themselves and access information, and ultimately the health of the web itself.
In an attempt to address tough questions surrounding online harms, UK policymakers are currently consulting on which services and features should be placed behind age gates as part of a national consultation on online harms. A broad range of services are being considered for age restrictions, including search engines, games and VPNs. Even targeted age restrictions of certain features would require all users to submit to age assurance systems. However, existing age assurance technologies have been found to either undermine users’ privacy and data security, to be insufficiently accurate or not widely accessible across populations. Age restrictions could also entrench the dominance of gatekeepers and fragment the web into a patchwork of age-gated jurisdictions.
Beyond the significant risks associated with mandating age assurance across core internet services, we are particularly concerned about proposals to restrict the use of VPNs. VPNs and similar services are essential privacy and security tools used by millions of users for legitimate purposes. Restricting the use of privacy-preserving technologies undermines efforts to empower users to navigate the web safely and to develop digital literacy.
Rather than age-restricting a growing number of services, we believe that addressing the roots of child safety concerns, such as poor content moderation, irresponsible data practices, and deceptive design, is a more proportionate and effective way forward. We thus urge policymakers to prioritize policy interventions that centre children’s’ rights and all users’ agency and choice, and protect, not undermine, the open web.
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