- Government report shows UK kids mostly use VPN to improve privacy
- Only a fifth of VPN users use this technology to bypass age verification.
- Pretending to be older is the most common way to evade age checks
As debate around potential VPN restrictions intensifies in the UK, a government report casts doubt on the merits of such drastic measures.
According to the study commissioned by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), digital privacy is the main driver of VPN use among UK children.
Unblocking content is the second most common motivation, with kids using these tools to access specific apps and media from other countries.
Crucially, the desire to circumvent mandatory age checks comes much further down the list, with only about a fifth of younger VPN users actively using the software to evade age checks. This equates to just 7% of all UK children using a VPN to access restricted platforms.
These findings challenge the idea that restricting VPNs is essential to enforce current age verification laws and the government’s proposed ban on social media for under-16s.
The government is set to share the results of its public consultation on children’s online safety and VPNs this month.
In response to requests for comment, a DSIT spokesperson shared a press release confirming that “VPNs play a limited role in circumventing age screening.”
“As platforms implement more rigorous age verification to comply with recently announced restrictions, many of the routes commonly used today to circumvent age checks will become increasingly difficult,” they continued.
Children and VPNs: what the DSIT report found
Following a national survey of more than 2,000 young people aged 11 to 17, researchers from BMG Research found that British children are very familiar with virtual private networks.
58% of children surveyed said they were familiar with the software, while around a quarter of all respondents admitted to using a VPN in their lifetime.
The underlying motivations of these young users appear to call into question the argument for stricter controls.
Among active VPN users, 30% say they use the software specifically to secure their online privacy. This aligns with warnings from digital rights advocates who say restricting VPN access could deprive miners of vital security tools.
And even though young people use these apps to circumvent content restrictions, the study shows that they are primarily interested in circumventing regional entertainment geo-blocks or school network restrictions rather than maliciously defeating age verification.
Circumventing age checks ranks fifth on the list of motivations. These findings mirror a separate YouGov study commissioned by the VPN Trust Initiative, which found that only 1.4% of minors surveyed use a VPN specifically to access platforms aimed at seniors.
So how can children bypass age checks?
It seems that British children have found much easier solutions to evade online controls than using a VPN.
More than half of children surveyed admitted that they are simply migrating to different platforms, with 37% choosing websites that lack any age verification and 34% opting for services known for imposing weak controls and being easy to deceive.
Pretending to be an adult remains the most common tactic, with around 63% of those circumventing checks admitting they were pretending to be an older person.
Concretely, 45% of them do so by giving a false date of birth during self-declaration checks, while a notable minority (11%) uses that of their parents. or identifying details of relatives.
The findings follow a stark warning to Downing Street from a coalition of more than 20 tech companies and privacy groups, which urged policymakers to protect digital rights and ensure VPN tools remain unrestricted.
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