TECHNOLOGY that disguises a person’s online location has seen a surge in users after new age verification rules came into force in the UK on Friday.
Sites offering adult content, including popular social media apps like X/Twitter, Reddit and TikTok, have introduced “age assurance” systems to comply with new rules brought in by the Online Safety Act.
Ofcom, the UK’s independent media regulator, set out the new rules which now make online and social media companies legally responsible for keeping children and young people safe online.
The regulator said the rules change aims to stop children from accessing “harmful or inappropriate” content, including pornography and material that relates to self-harm, eating disorders or suicide.
Some of the new age assurance measures which are being implemented by pornography providers, which are supported by Ofcom, include the use of facial age estimation, which assesses a person’s likely age through a live photo or video.
Other measures include checking a person’s age via their credit card provider, bank or mobile phone network operator; photo ID matching, where a passport or similar ID is checked against a selfie; or a “digital identity wallet” that contains proof of age.
However, since the legislation came into effect on Friday, the usage of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) have soared as people attempt to evade the new rules.
VPNs are commonly used by citizens in authoritarian regimes to get around internet censorship as they re-route a smartphone or a computer's internet traffic to another country, bypassing local network providers.
Now, apps in the UK that offer VPNs have made up half of the top 10 most popular free apps on the UK’s App Store for iOS this weekend, according to Apple’s rankings.
Proton VPN overtook ChatGPT to become the top free app in the UK as the Swiss-based company said it had seen a more than 1800% increase in daily sign-ups from UK-based users since Friday.
“We would normally associate these large spikes in sign-ups with major civil unrest,” Proton said.
“This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their privacy.”
Nord, another global leader that provides VPNs, said there had been a 1000 per cent increase in UK purchases of VPN subscriptions since the new rules kicked in.
Google Trends has also shown there has been a significant increase in search requests about VPNs in the UK this weekend, with up to 10 times more people searching for them during peak times.
Opposition to the new rules has grown in recent days, with a petition submitted through the UK Parliament website attracting more than 280,000 signatures.
The petition demands that the Online Safety Act be retracted, with a surge of signatures being added to the document in the past week.
Ofcom said on Sunday that age checks were not a “silver bullet” but added: “Until now, kids could easily stumble across porn and other online content that’s harmful to them without even looking for it. Age checks will help prevent that.
“We’re now assessing compliance to make sure platforms have them in place, and companies that fall short should expect to face enforcement action.”
