Our research finds no evidence that children are turning to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to get around new age checks designed to prevent under-18s from accessing pornography and other harmful content.
Summary
- Age checks to prevent children from accessing pornography came into effect in July 2025.
- 8% of children have used a VPN in the past 12 months.
- The number of children using VPNs has remained consistent over the past two years.
- The most common reasons children give for using a VPN is for data protection and accessing restricted entertainment content.
- We must continue to monitor children’s online activity to ensure protections to keep them safe online are working effectively.
New age assurance rules
In July 2025, new rules under the UK Online Safety Act (OSA) 2023 came into force. It required platforms and services to stop children from accessing online pornography and other harmful content such as self-harm content. Where providers had this content on their services, they were required to implement highly effective age assurance (HEAA) to restrict access. This resulted in pornography providers, such as Pornhub, introducing robust age checks to verify users are over 18.
At the time, VPN usage in the UK surged and there were widespread claims that these measures would be ineffective as children would simply use VPNs (which can be used to hide your real IP address and mask your location) to circumvent these checks.
Our latest Internet Matters Pulse data, based on a survey of 1,000 children aged 9-17 (in field in October – November 2025) explores children’s VPN usage.
What we found in children’s VPN usage
There have been no statistically significant changes to children’s VPN usage over the past two years. 8% of children say they have used a VPN in the past twelve months.
We do find that VPN usage increases with age, with 5% of 11-12-year-olds having used one compared to 10% of 13-14-year-olds and 11% of 15-17-year-olds. We also consistently find that boys are more likely than girls to both know how to use a VPN (18% of boys cf. 11% of girls) and have used one (10% of boys cf. 5% of girls).
When it comes to what children use VPNs for, we find that it is predominately for data protection (66%) and to watch restricted entertainment content like sports, films or TV (34%). In fact, only 16% of those who have used a VPN report using it to access restricted adult content such as pornography. While these numbers are likely higher due to under reporting, they still represent a small number of children.
What other research finds
Data from online safety organisation Childnet paints a similar picture. Their research also shows no ‘spike’ in children using VPNs for the first time following age checks being rolled out in July 2025. They also found that the most common reasons given by children for using VPNs were for privacy and to access video or sport content not available in their country.
Why this matters — and why we must remain vigilant
These findings are an important counterpoint to early claims that age checks would be easily sidestepped by children. Instead, the evidence suggests that age-assurance measures are not pushing children to riskier behaviours, such as using VPNs, to circumvent protections.
However, with 3 in 4 children reporting that they have experienced harm online on the eve of the OSA coming into force, we must continue to monitor how effective measures to protect children under the OSA are. Internet Matters, alongside others in the sector, will continue to monitor trends closely and ensure families experiences are placed at the heart of online safety policy. If we do not see significant improvements in children’s online experiences, we will not hesitate to call on Government and Ofcom to go further to keep children safe online.
