As a result of the Online Safety Act, many websites now require users to submit to age verification via ID. In the case of porn sites, the age verification methods are supposed to be “highly effective“. As we’re seeing, however, children are managing to get around these high-tech checks with low-tech solutions:
JUST IN: UK report finds children are drawing fake moustaches to bypass social media age verification.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) May 4, 2026
Age verification as “political theatre”
This issue is obviously a highly emotive one.
Parents understandably do not want their children accessing porn sites. Many also don’t want their teenagers on social media, which is again understandable. These places are an absolute cesspit. As people have argued, however, a better solution may be to force social media barons to clean up their cash cows.
Writing on the Online Safety Act in July 2025, the Canary’s Steve Topple reported:
While the Online Safety Act was sold as a child‑safety milestone, critics argue it’s structurally incapable of delivering that outcome. Campaigners from organisations including Barnardo’s, the Molly Rose Foundation and CARE UK warn that loopholes around algorithmic recommendations, autoplay, live‑streaming, and age verification mean the legislation “will not bring about the changes that children need and deserve”. Rather than curtail harmful exposure, the law risks becoming symbolic rather than effective.
Since enforcement began on 25 July, age verification—via ID scans, facial estimation, or mobile verification—has triggered over five million age checks per day, mostly on porn sites. But this in turn has driven a rapid surge in VPN downloads as users seek to bypass access controls, shifting minors toward less‑regulated parts of the internet and raising their exposure to greater harms rather than reducing it.
Obviously, many children don’t have access to VPNs – a type of software which masks a user’s location. What they do have access to is things like pens. As the Cyber Express wrote:
In one striking example, a parent described catching their child using makeup to appear older—successfully fooling the system.
“I did catch my son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old.” – Mum of boy, 12
There were other, more common methods of evading verification too:
The most common methods?
- Entering a fake birthdate (13%)
- Using someone else’s login credentials (9%)
- Accessing platforms via another person’s device (8%)
Despite widespread concerns about VPNs, they play a relatively minor role. Only 7% of children reported using them to bypass restrictions, suggesting that simpler, low-effort tactics remain the preferred route.
Obviously the above won’t work with the more ‘highly effective’ checks. Moustaches aside, though, some children are having success by repeatedly trying face recognition checks over and over, because this technology is still prone to making mistakes.
Privacy
As we’ve reported, this sort of age verification leaves us vulnerable to having our private data stolen. We’ve already seen massive data leaks linked to Online Safety Act measures, and as the Institute of Economic Affairs noted:
Back in 2015, the data of extramarital affair website of Ashley Madison was hacked and user details were publicly released, exposing 37 million members. One year later, hackers stole details of 63 million users of a major webcam pornography website. Data breaches are common fare for any firm with an online presence. In fact, in the last year alone, major names like Ticketmaster and the BBC have also been victims of significant breaches, highlighting that even well-established, non-adult platforms struggle to safeguard user data. If adult content providers operating in the UK implemented online age verification, their platforms and age verification vendors would overnight become even more lucrative targets for cyber criminals and state-sponsored hacking groups.
At this point, it’s clear the Online Safety Act has made us all more vulnerable to privacy concerns. It’s less clear that the act is keeping children safe.
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
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