The Online Safety Act's VPN Surge: The Misunderstanding

When the Online Safety Act 2025 came into force, policymakers expected tighter controls on harmful content and stricter age verification online. What they didn't anticipate was the surge in VPN usage across the UK, a surge not driven purely by evasion, but by citizens and businesses seeking to protect themselves.

The misunderstanding is clear: VPNs are being cast as loopholes, when in reality they are lifelines of modern cybersecurity, woven into home networks, mobile devices, and enterprise infrastructure alike.

Context: Online Safety Act 2025 and VPN Surge

The surge in VPN usage is not happening in a vacuum it's a direct response to new regulatory pressures and global debates about digital rights.

• The UK Online Safety Act 2025 introduced strict age-verification and content filtering requirements. This triggered a massive surge in VPN usage up to 1,400% in the UK as users sought to bypass restrictions.
• Regulators like Ofcom are now monitoring VPN traffic to assess compliance, raising concerns about privacy and overreach.
• In parallel, US policymakers have floated bans on VPNs, framing them as tools for evasion rather than legitimate security. This risks conflating consumer circumvention with enterprise grade protection.

What VPNs Really Are

A Virtual Private Network is not a trick for dodging rules it's a secure communications channel. By encrypting traffic end to end, VPNs create a tunnel that shields data from interception, manipulation, or surveillance. They are the backbone of secure connectivity, relied upon by businesses, civic platforms, and everyday users alike.

• A VPN is a tunnel of end to end encryption that protects data in transit.
• It prevents man in the middle attacks and keeps traffic integrity intact.
• For businesses, VPNs are vital for connecting offices and securing remote workers.
• For home users, they extend protections beyond the front door, ensuring privacy and resilience against hostile networks.

Citizen Use Case: Mobile Protection

The surge in VPN usage is not just about bypassing filters it is about citizens taking control of their own security. Mobile devices are constantly exposed to public Wi-Fi, rogue hotspots, and opportunistic attackers. By tunneling traffic back through a trusted home network, users can carry their protections with them wherever they go.

• Mobile traffic is routed back through a home network equipped with IDS/IPS, Pi-hole filtering, and content controls.
• Even on public Wi-Fi, devices inherit the same protections as at home.
• This blocks malware, phishing, and command-and-control servers before they reach the device.
• VPNs here are not about hiding identity, but about extending a trusted security perimeter.

A Practical Example: Building Security at Home

This isn't theory it is how a well designed home network can deliver enterprise grade protection at consumer cost. Instead of relying on blunt age verification checks, a layered approach creates genuine safety:

• UDM Pro router with 2-way IDS/IPS (75,000+ signatures) → enterprise grade intrusion detection and prevention, priced similarly to a gaming router but with far more features (even protects infected devices).
• Pi-hole with curated, frequently updated blocklists → shields against new malicious domains, trojans, and command and control servers every six hours.
• Honey pot traps on all VLANs → lure and contain hostile traffic, preventing lateral movement inside the network.
• Content filters → enforce policy driven controls for family use.
• WireGuard VPN server → creates a secure tunnel back into the home network.

Extending Protection Beyond the Home

Every mobile device used outside the home runs a WireGuard client, tunneling traffic back into the protected network. This means that whether on public Wi-Fi or mobile data, devices benefit from the same quality of defense as if they were inside the house, IDS/IPS, Pi-hole filtering, honey traps, and content controls all apply seamlessly.

Business Use Case: Infrastructure and Continuity

For enterprises, VPNs are not optional they are mission critical. They underpin secure collaboration, protect sensitive data, and ensure continuity across distributed teams. Far from being loopholes, they are the encrypted arteries of modern commerce.

• Site-to-site connectivity securely links branch offices and cloud infrastructure.
• Remote workers depend on VPNs to access internal systems without exposing sensitive data.
• Marketing and advertising teams use VPNs for geo testing campaigns and compliance with regional rules.
• Civic and advocacy platforms rely on VPNs to safeguard editorial workflows, protect whistleblowers, and ensure operational transparency.

Critical Business Functions

VPNs enable essential business operations that would be impossible without secure tunneling:

• Financial Services: Secure access to trading systems and customer data across global offices
• Healthcare: HIPAA compliant access to patient records for remote medical staff
• Legal Firms: Attorney client privilege protection for confidential communications
• Journalism: Source protection and secure communication for investigative reporting
• Technology Companies: Intellectual property protection and secure code repository access

Impact Analysis

Treating VPNs as circumvention tools risks undermining cybersecurity resilience. Citizens, businesses, and civic platforms all rely on VPNs for legitimate, mission critical functions. Policy that ignores this reality risks weakening both citizen security and national resilience.

• Security resilience: VPNs are often the first line of defense against hostile networks.
• Economic continuity: Businesses depend on them for secure operations across borders.
• Civic trust: Advocacy and journalism rely on VPNs to protect sources and workflows.

Why This Matters

The Online Safety Act 2025 was designed to protect citizens, but its reliance on crude age verification gateways has unintentionally expanded the UK's cyber attack surface. By forcing users through centralized checkpoints, the Act risks creating new vulnerabilities rather than closing old ones.

A better path would have been to encourage layered, reproducible security practices approaches that citizens and businesses can adopt and replicate, from home networks to mobile devices. VPNs are central to this model. They are not loopholes; they are the connective tissue that extends trusted protections into every environment, ensuring resilience against hostile networks and genuine safety for children and citizens alike.

Alternative Approaches to Online Safety

Rather than restricting security tools, effective online safety could be achieved through education, empowerment, and technical literacy.

Family Centered Security

Empowering families with security tools rather than imposing surveillance:

• Router Security Education: Teaching parents to configure family friendly filtering
• Network Literacy: Understanding how home networks can provide protection
• Device Management: Parental controls that don't require government oversight
• Digital Citizenship: Teaching children safe online practices rather than relying on restrictions
• Open Source Solutions: Transparent, auditable security tools that families can trust

Educational Rather Than Restrictive

Building digital literacy instead of digital barriers:

• School Curricula: Teaching cybersecurity and critical thinking as core subjects
• Parent Education: Workshops on digital parenting and online safety
• Community Programs: Local initiatives teaching technical skills
• Industry Partnership: Cybersecurity companies providing educational resources
• Government Support: Funding education rather than surveillance infrastructure

Decoded Closing

VPNs are not loopholes they are lifelines. The surge in usage following the Online Safety Act is not a rebellion against regulation, but a reminder that citizens and businesses will always seek tools that protect them. Misunderstanding VPNs as mere anonymity masks their true role: they are the encrypted arteries of modern digital life.

The Online Safety Act's unintended consequence driving citizens toward sophisticated security tools actually points toward a better path. Instead of fighting this trend, policymakers should embrace it. Support families in building secure home networks. Educate parents about digital protection. Fund research into privacy-preserving safety technologies.

The choice is clear: we can have a surveillance state that pretends to provide safety while weakening actual security, or we can have a digitally literate society that understands how to protect itself. VPNs are tools of empowerment, not evasion. The sooner policymakers understand this, the sooner we can build truly effective approaches to online safety that don't require sacrificing cybersecurity or privacy.

The 1,400% surge in UK VPN usage isn't a problem to be solved it's a solution that citizens have already discovered. Smart policy would build on this foundation rather than trying to tear it down.