UK Children Sidestep Age Checks as Parents Flag Privacy Risks
Survey: Since the Online Safety Act took effect in July 2025, children report using fake birthdates, borrowed logins and spoofed faces to bypass age checks; parents fear data reuse.
A survey by UK charity Internet Matters reports that many children are bypassing age checks introduced under the Online Safety Act, and that parents are concerned about how verification data is handled. The law took effect in July 2025 and the report examines changes in UK family online life since then.
More than half of children said they were asked to verify their age within a recent two-month window, most often on platforms including TikTok, YouTube/Google and Roblox. About half of children said they now see more age-appropriate content, and roughly four in ten parents and children said the online environment had become somewhat safer.
The survey found widespread workarounds. Almost half of children describe age checks as easy to bypass, and about a third admitted recently using those workarounds. Common methods reported were entering false birthdates, using family or friends’ logins and using simple photo techniques to fool facial checks. Use of VPNs was reported less often. One parent described discovering a 12-year-old who had drawn a mustache with an eyebrow pencil and passed a facial check as 15.
Platforms now use a range of age-assurance tools, including facial age estimation, government ID checks and third-party age-assurance apps. Children often find these checks straightforward to complete. Parents raised concerns about what data is collected for age verification, whether biometric or identity data might be stored, and whether data could be reused across services or accessed by public bodies.
The report records calls from families and campaigners for a central, privacy-protective approach to age assurance to reduce repeated data collection across platforms. It also records that 90% of children who noticed improved blocking and reporting features viewed those changes positively, citing clearer rules, limits on contact with strangers and restrictions on high-risk functions.
In the month after specialist child-protection codes associated with the Act came into force, almost half of children reported some online harm, including violent, hateful or body image-related content. The report highlights inconsistent age-assurance, easy circumvention, and remaining regulatory gaps on time spent online, risks from AI tools and persuasive design as ongoing issues. The survey presents an early view of how children’s online experiences and family concerns have changed since the Act took effect.
