Keir Starmer declares 'months' timeline for social media age clampdown in UK

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has set a "months" timeline for the long-brewing plan for a social media age limit, signaling the government is ready to pick a fight with Big Tech if that's what it takes. In a Substack post, Starmer said ministers want powers to set a minimum age for social media far more quickly than it took …

[cd]

Force VPNs off so more data-harvesting "for the chikdren".

But don't do anything about the elephant.

[Rogerborg 2.0]

What species of elephant?

[theDeathOfRats]

I'd say the North-American one is the most dangerous for the children, nowadays.

[Jimjam3]

Nevermind the elephant.

I get it that he’s worried about kids these days, but seriously the education system is f*cked. That’s what he should be focusing on tbh.

Way too much effort trying to protect the kids from all the nastiness of the world without giving them the tools and skills to handle what the world will throw at them.

[blu3b3rry]

Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

Like many employers, mine uses one for remote working and access to company systems when not present in the buildings - this is used internationally and domestically, by employees across the globe.

Remove the VPN and some of my tools simply don't work. Then again this is driven by the same organisations that are trying to go after online presences like 4chan for not putting in place age verification! You can't get much more out of touch than that in thinking your enforcement notices are going to get listened to....

[Infused]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

I'd guess they might have exceptions for government, business & education. Just ordinary members of the public would have to prove their age or ID. At this point I don't think we can rule anything out anymore, e.g. a ban on talking about circumvention tools online; forcing VPNs to keep logs, etc.

[Lon24]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

DON'T PANIC!

'Cos that makes bad law, disrespected law. We have the benefit of Australia leading the way as the pilot on SM age verification. Let's wait ans see how that plays out and take one step at a time. Keep VPN control on hold.. Most folks here can get round online obstacles put in their way. you name it and someone will find a way. That's not the point.

Aussie kids, of course aided by the media, boast on how they cheat the system. But a year after the law came in - how many will still do day-to-day? I don't know, you don't know. I used to access Twitter via Nitter but now I can't be bothered. If VPN's turn out to make the ban ineffective then we can think about the best way of limiting that. It doesn't have to be a blanket ban - most private VPN admins know precisely who is using them - they point directly or indirectly to your employment, school or whatever record.

I suspect the VPN issue is more political theatre and it will be quietly disappear or filtered down. I guess representations are being made and the lawmakers are realising it's a much more difficult thing to legislate than targetting the real bad actors in this story who are obvious just by size.

I could be wrong and they do panic. But at least if they propose legislation we will be able to tear it apart publicly. That would delay legislation that they need with the risk of a late U-turn. Even governments can work that one out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

Disagree, there's plenty to be concerned about, not least the ability to have all online interactions de-anonymised. Non-permitted opinions will get you prosecuted, sooner or later.

[Simon Harris]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

Just curious: for anyone in the education system these days...

When I was at school, computing facilities consisted of a second hand PDP8/e and a couple of SWTPC 6800 systems that the head of Computer Science had built himself. By the time I left a (singular) BBC Micro had been added to that collection.

Now we're way into in the era of networked school computers, do they encourage the use of school VPNs to enable pupils to access networked school resources for homework when off campus?

Edit: I suppose such VPNs could be fairly easy to identify and be whitelisted.

[lordminty]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

My child's school had its own VPN, and that was well over a decade ago.

[Jimjam3]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

When I was in my last year of school, the head of math obtained a Commodore PET and that was the limit of our schools IT.

Since the late 90s schools have networked PCs and I suspect now they are just using tablets connected (hopefully) to the schools VPN. However the security of school IT tech is rudimentary plus the fact that ‘all’ the kids have internet capabilities puts Keir in panic mode.

[Roland6]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

> do they encourage the use of school VPNs

Well in direct answer not really, across the schools my children attended practically everything revolved around 365 thus was cloud-based.

In tangential response it would seem the use of security measures by schools encouraged the use of VPNs - HideMyAss!

[Dr Dan Holdsworth]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

The easy way of implementing this "Think of the children" thing is to impose filtered DNS on all UK ISPs, so adults have to prove to just their ISP that they are adult enough to use the unfiltered DNS.

This would stop 95% of kids from seeing naughty stuff, put the onus for spotting and blocking onto OFCOM, allow the Government to claim that they had Done Something and let everyone else quietly use a different DNS and get on with their lives.

In other words exactly the same outcome as now but without OFCOM having to run round bleating at porn sites and getting roundly ignored.

[Simon Harris]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

I remember with Virgin and EE ages ago having to tick the 'I'm an adult and allowed to see adult things' box on my ISP and phone accounts.

However, how many households have a separate ISP for the adults and the children? Unfilter the DNS for adult members, and you've unfiltered it for the kids too. And even if you're not a regular user of porn, 'adult things' is a much broader category than just that. Leave it filtered for the kids, and there's a lot of non-naughty content you may need access to but are blocked.

[Jimjam3]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

True but it is a start that could be implemented, unlike the nonsense currently being proposed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

"However, how many households have a separate ISP for the adults and the children?" A separate WiFi link shouldn't be too impossible.

My daughter's phone was set up with a filter on mobile data, if I'd just denied her Wifi and had her use a bit more data it'd be a separate link for that account.

Remember this is only a holding maneuver anyway, to last between when they're young enough you keep an eye on them and they're old enough you've had a decent talk to them about what's on the internet and they know they can come to you for help.

[Roland6]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

> A separate WiFi link shouldn't be too impossible.

I used a separate SSID for my children and friends - I didn’t have to track and setup rules for individual devices (it seems the EE parental controls are device-based and so friends devices …) Only issue was I needed a physically separate router as the ISP router only had a global content filtering rule.set.

> Remember this is only a holding maneuver anyway,

By the time the eldest was 16, I had replaced routers and didn’t set up any content filtering. The issue/irritation was the age restrictions on some games eg call of duty, FIFA and EA Games.

[Irongut]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

Only a fool uses their ISP's DNS server, especially in the UK where they are already subject to the demands of the courts to remove sites like Pirate Bay.

Also this would not work. Changing your DNS to a third party is childs play, especially since the rise of DNS over HTTPS.

[Richard 12]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

All parents want is usable parental controls.

The tools exist for genuine parental controls, but they're so incredibly hard to use - and actively broken every few months.

ISPs don't want to bother, while the OS, device and major software manufacturers are actively sabotaging them.

Cloudflare runs a filtered DNS which works pretty well - but ISPs make it very difficult to set that up on the routers they ship.

Then browsers actively bypass it.

Windows refuses to allow effective parental controls - presumably because that might affect the Intune market.

Google discontinued YouTube Kids, which broke the Android, iOS and Smart TV parental controls because suddenly they need "full" YouTube - so the "child" profile you carefully curated is useless.

Android/iOS barely operate when locked down, and push unwanted software by default.

But you know what the government could do, right now?

Enforce existing law! The big social media are actively breaking the DPA/GDPR by using data without proper consent, and kids cannot legally consent anyway. One 10% worldwide revenue fine and it all goes away.

[paluster]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

I think that they would be targetting public VPNs like NordVPN

Your work VPN is almost certainly a private one with the end point on your corporate firewalls. There is no way for them to regulate that, nor is their any need to do so.

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

The real world didn't stop them putting impossible things in the Online Safety Act, what makes you think a rushed set of additions to an unrelated bill will go well ?

[lordminty]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

"Your work VPN is almost certainly a private one with the end point on your corporate firewalls. There is no way for them to regulate that, nor is their any need to do so."

When has that ever stopped them?

I think you are delusional. That's exactly what they will do. You'll be verifying your age everytime you login to your employer's VPN.

[Tron]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

This is all activist led. Messing with it will end what little support Labour retain.

Why not ban children from using the net unsupervised, and leave the net alone. Ban kids from owning smartphones, allow them to use the net in schools under supervision, and require their use of the net at home to be supervised. If parents don't supervise, a few high profile court cases will be enough to fix it.

I guess politicians want to ID every user and block all services from beyond their borders. They have no idea how unpopular they will become. I will never vote Tory or Labour now, not even to keep Reform out, because of the OSA censorship - we already had ISP blocks that worked fine. State censorship of the net ends my support for either of them, permanently.

Starmer will be out after the May elections when Reform erase Labour and probably the Tories too from local govt. His replacement will just carry on failing until there is a repeat at the next general election, and then Reform will wreck the UK a bit more, in different ways.

Nothing positive ahead, but govt. meddling with our net is going to be a disaster.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

After seeing how much Labour have wrecked the country, I think Reform will do a good job in comparison.

Greens are just a bunch of nutters that will make Labour look sensible in comparison (which is where I see people trying to push tactical voting)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

I'm kind of looking forward to Reform winning more local councils in the May elections, just so more people get a taste of how useless they are at actually running anything.

[LucreLout]

Re: Trying to put age verification on VPN's is deeply silly

Agreed, it's a horrendously stupid idea. Fortunately Starmer Always Chickens Out. SACO.

I can see they'll push for it, but it'll be just another uturn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Control of Internet Speech

How would you like this wrapped?

[Anonymous Coward]

Twitter?

Linking to Twitter? If you're hanging around the Nazi bar either you're a Nazi or you're happy to associate with them.

[logicalextreme]

Re: Twitter?

that Godwinned quickly

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Control of Internet Speech

Anyone willing to pollute their machine with Twitter to relay what was actually said?

[HT7777]

Re: Control of Internet Speech

> Anyone willing to pollute their machine with Twitter to relay what was actually said?

Just like yourself I'm not willing to go to twitter.

What I did though was to paste the URL in to Deepseek and asked it to check it out so I don't have to.

It said:

"The tweet from the user @PeteBritish is very brief. It simply says "Technocratic menace." and tags another user, @PolitlcsUK, with no other explanation in the post itself."

[Doctor Syntax]

"The tone throughout Starmer's post is combative, with the PM framing the effort as a willingness to take on Silicon Valley if necessary."

And is he also willing to take on all the legitimate UK business users or VPNs and risk screwing the economy up further?

[Bebu sa Ware]

"risk screwing the economy up further?"

So far, and following their predecessors, this government is clearly more than happy to just take "risk" out of that.

You can't beat certainty.

[elsergiovolador]

Seems like he is adopting Krasnov's strategy on how to deal with personal failures. Create deflection, so people don't talk about Mandelson etc.

[lordminty]

"And is he also willing to take on all the legitimate UK business users or VPNs and risk screwing the economy up further?"

In a word, yes.

[Roland6]

> The tone throughout Starmer's post is combative

This change in Starmer had been noticed by some parts of the media; it has been attributed to him no longer having media/communications manager/PR agent.

Reports are this is what his is like behind closed doors.

[Kevin Johnston]

Limit VPNs how exactly?

Without blocking the use of VPNs entirely, how on earth do they think this will work? If I set a VPN to pretend I am in Vanuatu or Laos then how will any measures designed to pick up UK users work?

We could even go a step further and suggest that the next challenge would be how to handle online VMs

Our blessed MPs repeatedly show their woeful ignorance of the real world and anything more modern than a twintub washing machine while the younger generations are fully integrated into technology and how to slide past Security Theatre blocks

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

This is about control and wedge for Larry Fink's Digital ID.

I think MPs know very well this is rubbish, but wine and steak dinner can make anyone forget about their concerns.

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

I imagine, any VPN offering services in the UK will be required to do age verification. If not, you're blocked* (and prosecuted if you have a legal presence in the UK).

* A DNS block I imagine.

[Recluse]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

Not using a UK domiciled VPN provider should circumvent this - the only way it might get challenging is if they block the payment method associated (and even then for the determined there are ways/means of circumventing)

At this rate of nannying I wonder how long it will be before the State requires you to provide full digital ID to have an internet connection installed, holds you personally liable/responsible for all traffic (I’m ignoring the added complication of static v dhcp assigned WAN addresses) and mandates the compulsory use of an “approved” gateway device (with appropriate snooping software installed)

We really are disappearing down a rabbit hole - personally I think it should all be dumped back on the parents to sort, after all they (literally) created the problem …

[Richard 12]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

Parents don't want any of this either, and never did.

Parents just want usable parental controls that don't require large amounts of money, expertise, and continuous monitoring to set up and maintain.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

> At this rate of nannying I wonder how long it will be before the State requires you to provide full digital ID to have an internet connection installed,

Well you have to pay a bill, so they know your name, address and banking details. That's enough to identify you.

>holds you personally liable/responsible for all traffic

Depends what you mean by "personally". You will be treated as a suspect for sure. See this: https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/crossed_wires_iioc_case/

> (I’m ignoring the added complication of static v dhcp assigned WAN addresses)

They log DHCP leases to answer requests such as those in the link above.

> and mandates the compulsory use of an “approved” gateway device (with appropriate snooping software installed)

That's going to be in the ISP's network. Expect most large ISPs to have some way of doing this so they can comply with retention notices. https://decoded.legal/blog/2021/06/must-all-uk-internet-access-providers-keep-records-of-which-websites-i-visit/

[HT7777]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

Without blocking the use of VPNs entirely, how on earth do they think this will work?

They will order payment providers to stop dealing with VPN providers.

[Roland6]

Re: Limit VPNs how exactly?

> Without blocking the use of VPNs entirely, how on earth do they think this will work?

Like the porn site filter.

With the oversea’s sites, they will target the likes of Cloudfare to block their UK traffic.

Also it seems Google and MS have modified the filters on their AI search…

[elsergiovolador]

Concern

Funny how government is concerned about children.

Yet when it comes to Epstein clients... crickets.

[Havoc71]

distraction

Don't look at all these Paedo adjacent ministers, lords and ambassadors I've appointed, think of the kids and ban VPNs

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: distraction

And whatever you do don't kick up a fuss about the grooming gangs scandal in Rotherham & elsewhere. That'd be divisive and detrimental to that modern creed, "community harmony".

[tiggity]

Re: distraction

.. and daily you read of UK perverts with child porn (& not just the odd image, but a metric fuck tonne of the stuff) getting a wrist slap e.g. a bit f community service or a suspended sentence instead of off to jail.

I would be quite keen on more action taken against those individuals but UK seems to treat paedo images with bizarre leniency - e.g. judge letting off a teacher with lots of CP because they were of good character & it was a first offence (FFS - why do you think he went into teaching, & first offence only ever means first time caught)

[DannyH246]

Re: Concern

That's because as we all know this has absolutely NOTHING to do with protecting children. Its just a backdoor for Digital Id.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cut off one head and three more will appear

Any attempts to limit access to VPNs will immediately be met with a surge in people using rented servers to host their own. Any attempts at mandating age checks to rent a server will be met with usage of existing VPNs to rent a server elsewhere to get around that. Successive UK governments have repeatedly shown their disdain for anyone being able to access things when they say no, despite not being illegal.

I also presume the "preserve data on a child's device if they die" bit applies to apps on mobile devices like iPads and Android phones, which are 99.9% linked to an account? Anything accessed in a web browser can just have history cleared, unless you're silly enough to upload all your browsing history to said account too.