As of 25 July 2025, strict age verification requirements under the UK’s Online Safety Act went live. Platforms hosting adult content including social apps like X, Reddit and TikTok are now required to implement robust identity checks to block under 18s from accessing harmful material.

Methods include facial scanning, government ID upload or credit card validation. Platforms that do not comply face fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of global revenue.

On the same day enforcement began, Proton VPN reported a staggering 1,400 per cent surge in UK-based user sign ups. The app vaulted past ChatGPT to top free app charts in Apple’s UK App Store. Similar VPN services from Nord Security and Super Unlimited also entered the top ten ranking. Proton described the spike as similar to those seen during major civil unrest.

Search data from Google Trends mirrored the behaviour shift, with queries for VPNs rising by as much as tenfold in peak periods.

Cybersecurity commentators warn that VPNs now provide a low barrier method for UK users to circumvent compliance entirely. Virtual private networks mask IP addresses as if the user is abroad, rendering geo based age checks useless, and have long been tools for bypassing censorship in authoritarian regimes.

Ofcom has said age checks are not a silver bullet and acknowledged that teens could still get around them using VPNs. Despite that, the regulator is actively monitoring compliance and preparing enforcement action where needed.

Critics have decried the requirements as poorly considered technology legislation. Anthony Rose, the UK tech entrepreneur behind iPlayer, commented that it takes “less than five minutes to install a VPN” and that people are simply outwitting what he called “stupid legislation.”

A petition demanding repeal of the Online Safety Act has now gathered more than 280,000 signatures, forcing parliamentary discussion under UK procedure.