Liz Kendall has no solution to under-16s using VPNs to get around social media ban

On 15 June, the government announced a social media ban for under-16s. Since the announcement, there has been much reporting on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). This software solution allow users to spoof their location, meaning they can get around UK-specific age restrictions. Speaking on this workaround, technology secretary Liz Kendall has basically admitted the government has no solution:

Hahahaha yeah this ban is not going to work https://t.co/OlTlWZ5uZr

— Maxwell Marlow 🇺🇦 (@maxwell_marlow) June 16, 2026

Social media ban doesn’t keep kids safe

In the clip above, LBC host Nick Ferrari shows Kendall how quick and easy it is to connect with a VPN (answer = very). In response, Kendall explained that she’s going to return with a solution in July. This suggests she doesn’t have an answer now and won’t have one in a month, because they’ve already had half a year to figure this out.

Australia introduced its own social media ban in December 2025. As we know, VPNs are one of the ways which Australian kids have used to get around the ban. And as we also know, the majority of these kids still have social media accounts.

As the Molly Rose Foundation demonstrated:

Three in five (61%) Australian 12-15 year-olds who had accounts on restricted platforms before the ban came into force still have access to one or more accounts. Major platforms have retained a majority of their child users, with 53% of previous TikTok users, 53% of YouTube users and 52% of Instagram users still able to access an account on these platforms.

. …

Molly Rose Foundation warns this data raises major question marks about the effectiveness of Australia’s social media ban, and that given the findings it would be a ‘high stakes gamble’ for the UK to follow suit at this stage.

Today we warn that Australia’s ban is failing to act as the urgent and decisive firebreak that proponents of a ban have suggested. Instead, it risks offering parents a false sense of safety and risks letting tech firms off the hook for safety failings.

Speaking further on this point, the Canary’s Maddison Wheeldon wrote:

the problem is unregulated, unyielding tech companies and unfettered capitalism – and the government appears to have chosen to go after an easier target in young people instead of holding billionaires accountable.

Messy

Think tank director Maxwell Marlow additionally had this to say:

The political cost is too great for them to do so

— Maxwell Marlow 🇺🇦 (@maxwell_marlow) June 16, 2026

It’s actually a very common security practice for businesses to use VPNs on their company networks. In other words, there isn’t a simple way for the government to ban VPNs, even if they wanted to. And yet again, it would be adding new layers of complexity to a solution which is already overly complicated.

As many suspect, none of this is to keep children safe; it’s to implement Digital ID by the backdoor, and to allow private companies to scrape our data. In other words, the government doesn’t care if children use VPNs or not.

Featured image via LBC