"Think of the children!" – the rallying cry that launched a thousand regulations. It's also the shield behind which governments can justify almost any restriction on adult behaviour.
The UK's Online Safety Act, with its mandatory age verification requirements, perfectly illustrates this tension. On one side: a genuine desire to protect minors from harmful content. On the other: concerns about privacy erosion, government overreach, and the normalisation of identity checkpoints on the internet.
This isn't a debate where one side is obviously right. Both positions have merit. Both have weaknesses. Understanding both is essential for anyone trying to make sense of why VPN downloads are skyrocketing and why petitions against the law are gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Let's examine the ethical battleground.
The Case FOR Age Verification
The Child Protection Imperative
The statistics aren't comfortable reading. Ofcom research found that approximately 8% of children aged 8-14 were accessing pornography sites each month. Let that sink in: eight-year-olds.
Early exposure to explicit content has been linked to:
- Distorted expectations about relationships and consent
- Anxiety, confusion, and shame about sexuality
- Potential impacts on developing attitudes toward gender and intimacy
From this perspective, age verification isn't about controlling adults – it's about protecting children from content they're not developmentally equipped to process. The argument is straightforward: if we require ID to buy alcohol, cigarettes, or watch films in cinemas, why should online pornography be exempt?
The "Something Must Be Done" Principle
For years, the default was a simple "I am over 18" checkbox – which everyone knew was meaningless. Any child could click "Yes" and access explicit content instantly. The status quo was indefensible.
Supporters argue that doing nothing was no longer acceptable. Even imperfect action was better than continuing to pretend that tick-boxes constituted protection. The law represents an attempt to create genuine barriers, not theatrical ones.
Parental Support
Surveys consistently show strong parental support for stricter online protections. Many parents feel overwhelmed by the challenge of monitoring their children's online activity. Age verification shifts some responsibility back to platforms – where, arguably, it belongs.
The 80% initial public support for age verification (noted in Ofcom research) suggests this isn't just authoritarian overreach. Many ordinary people genuinely want these protections.
Corporate Accountability
The law forces platforms to take responsibility for their role in distribution. For years, adult content sites operated with minimal accountability – profitable businesses built on easily bypassed age gates. Now there are consequences: fines up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, criminal liability for executives, and the threat of site blocking.
This is regulation with teeth. Whether you agree with the approach, it's not toothless posturing.
The Case AGAINST Age Verification
The Privacy Nightmare
The implementation requires adults to submit sensitive personal data – government IDs, biometric scans, banking credentials – to third-party companies to access legal content. This creates databases linking identities to browsing habits, which are extraordinarily valuable to hackers.
The Ashley Madison breach demonstrated what happens when such data is exposed: blackmail, ruined careers, family destruction, and suicides. A breach of age verification data would be exponentially worse – government IDs attached to adult content consumption.
Critics argue that the state is essentially demanding citizens register their private browsing habits. This isn't protecting children; it's creating a surveillance infrastructure that could easily expand to other "harmful" content.
The "It Won't Work" Problem
VPN downloads increased by 1,400% on day one of enforcement. Technical circumvention is trivially easy for anyone motivated enough. The law creates inconvenience for law-abiding adults while barely impeding determined children.
Worse, it may push some users to less regulated corners of the internet. When Pornhub blocked Louisiana (under a similar US law), traffic to that site dropped 80% – but did children stop accessing explicit content? Or did they simply find less-moderated alternatives?
The argument: age verification creates friction for adults without actually solving the child protection problem, especially when VPNs are legal and widely available.
The Slippery Slope Isn't Hypothetical
Age verification infrastructure, once built, can be expanded. Today it's pornography. What about tomorrow?
- Social media deemed "harmful to mental health"?
- News sources labelled "misinformation"?
- Encrypted messaging apps?
- VPNs themselves?
MPs have already suggested that VPNs should be "examined further" or require their own age verification. Some have floated ideas about requiring age checks for VPN purchases. The expansion impulse is already visible.
Digital rights groups warn that normalising identity checkpoints for internet access fundamentally changes the relationship between citizens and the state. The internet was built on anonymity – a design feature, not a bug.
The Chilling Effect
When accessing legal content requires identity registration, some people simply won't access it. This isn't limited to pornography – it affects:
- Sexual health resources flagged for explicit educational content
- LGBTQ+ communities accessing niche content
- Abuse survivors seeking information or support
- People in relationships where their browsing might be monitored
The fear of exposure – to employers, family, or communities – creates self-censorship. This is censorship without censorship: no content is banned, but the cost of access becomes too high for many.
Digital Exclusion
3.5 million UK adults lack photo ID. Many are elderly, homeless, or economically disadvantaged. Open Banking verification requires a bank account – excluding the unbanked. Biometric systems don't always work for people with disabilities or certain racial groups (algorithmic bias is well-documented).
The system creates digital second-class citizens: those with the right documents and those without.
The Role of VPNs in This Debate
VPNs have become the elephant in the room. Their existence fundamentally challenges the law's effectiveness – and raises further ethical questions.
Are VPN Users "Cheating"?
From one perspective, VPN users are circumventing a law designed to protect children. They're finding loopholes rather than complying with democratic legislation.
From another: they're adults using legal technology to maintain the privacy they've always had. The law targets platform compliance, not user behaviour. There's nothing illegal about appearing to browse from France.
Are VPNs Enabling Child Access?
Critics argue that VPN availability undermines the law's goals. If adults can bypass easily, so can tech-savvy teenagers.
Counter-argument: children who would use a VPN are already bypassing simple age gates. The law was never going to stop determined teenagers with technical knowledge. Meanwhile, it creates massive privacy invasions for millions of adults.
The Government Response
Some MPs have called for VPNs to be "examined" or regulated. Proposals include:
- Requiring age verification to purchase VPN subscriptions
- Mandating UK-based VPN servers to comply with age verification
- Outright blocking of VPN traffic (the "Great Firewall" approach)
Privacy advocates call these proposals "the dumbest possible fix" – they would destroy legitimate privacy uses of VPNs, harm businesses, and likely fail anyway (obfuscated VPN traffic is nearly impossible to detect).
What's Actually Happening on the Ground
The Public Backlash
A petition against the age verification requirements gathered over 420,000 signatures – forcing a Parliamentary debate. The response suggests significant public unease, even if polling shows majority support for "protecting children" in abstract terms.
Platform Responses
Major platforms have complied (Pornhub, Reddit via Persona verification). Others have simply blocked UK users entirely, finding it cheaper to abandon the market than implement verification. Smaller forums and sites are splintering – some complying, some blocking, some ignoring the law and risking enforcement.
The VPN Boom
VPN downloads have exploded. Providers report 1,400-1,800% increases in UK downloads. This isn't a fringe reaction – it's mass adoption of circumvention tools. The law has, ironically, made VPN usage mainstream in a way privacy advocates never achieved.
Finding the Middle Ground?
Are there approaches that could protect children without the privacy implications?
Device-Level Controls
Parental controls at the device or network level allow parents to restrict access without requiring adults to register their identities with third parties. The responsibility stays with parents, where it arguably belongs.
Opt-Out Verification
Rather than requiring everyone to prove they're adults, some propose systems where adults can opt out of restrictions via a verified digital identity – but where the default is open access. This flips the current model.
Anonymous Age Tokens
Cryptographic approaches could theoretically prove "over 18" without revealing identity – essentially digital proof of age that isn't linked to a name. These technologies exist but aren't widely deployed.
Better Education
Some argue the focus should be on educating children about online content rather than attempting to wall off parts of the internet – an approach that has failed everywhere it's been tried.
Where Does NordVPN Fit?
NordVPN finds itself in an interesting position: a tool whose primary purpose is privacy and security, now being used by millions to bypass government regulations.
From NordVPN's perspective (and ours), this isn't about helping people break rules – it's about providing privacy technology that has countless legitimate uses:
- Protecting business communications
- Securing public Wi-Fi connections
- Accessing content while travelling
- Protecting against ISP tracking
- Circumventing censorship in authoritarian countries
The fact that this technology also allows UK adults to browse privately isn't a design flaw – it's a feature that happens to be relevant to current legislation.
NordVPN remains legal to purchase and use in the UK. They don't log user activity. They can't tell anyone what you're accessing because they genuinely don't know.
Get NordVPN with up to 72% off + 3 months free →
Our Take
We believe child protection is important. We also believe privacy is a fundamental right, not a privilege to be surrendered for access to legal content.
The UK's age verification implementation is heavy-handed. It creates privacy risks that are disproportionate to the benefits. It will not stop determined children while inconveniencing millions of adults. And the infrastructure it builds has dangerous potential for expansion.
Using a VPN to maintain the privacy you had before 2025 isn't cheating the system – it's a rational response to a poorly designed policy.
But we understand people disagree. This is genuinely complicated. The goal of protecting children from harmful content is valid. The debate over how to achieve it without sacrificing adult privacy will continue.
In the meantime, the choice is yours: comply with identity verification and hope the data is never breached, or use a VPN and browse with the anonymity that was standard for the past 30 years of the internet.