Earlier this year, many lawmakers and regulators around the world were, once again, trying to control and regulate the internet in the name of protecting children, but the latest round of policy discussions related to effective bans on the use of VPNs appear destined for failure. While governments can make particular websites or apps more difficult to access, completely closing the available workarounds for those restrictions would require levels of identity checking, network surveillance, and device control that most liberal democracies are simply not willing to accept.

Indeed, governments across the West are increasingly turning to age-based restrictions on access to specific websites and apps, with some jurisdictions also moving those restrictions deeper into the lower layers of the tech stack.…