Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Technology Henna Virkkunen The recent VPN comments have created an uproar. In Kauppalehti’s Talousamau, Virkkunen says that it is a misunderstanding.
Virkkunen was recently presenting the EU’s new age verification application, which aims to protect children from harmful online content. Such monitoring can be circumvented with a virtual private network application, i.e. a VPN connection.
Virkkunen said at the event that the next step is to think about how to prevent evasion.
“Of course, I mean that it is important when developing such an age certificate that it is as strong and reliable as possible, that it can also be trusted,” says Virkkunen. “But somewhere there has now been a misunderstanding that VPNs are somehow being banned or rejected. Of course, that’s not the case.”
According to him, the discussion about VPN in itself is a different issue.
“It is above all about this, that when children use different services online, it could be reliably identified, and it would not be easy for children to circumvent it.”
According to Virkkunen, the commission continues to look for a solution to how minors can be prevented from accessing inappropriate content.
“Of course, our goal is to find solutions so that it is not easy to circumvent, so that minors do not get access to services that are not intended for them.”
On Friday, the financial morning also discussed the result of Mandatum and the fact that buildings are now being demolished at an accelerating pace in Finland. Watch the full broadcast below.