Major VPN provider sees a huge spike in sign ups as age verification law comes into effect in the UK

The Online Safety Act came into effect in the UK on Friday, 25 July, 2025. The legislation rightly aims to shield children from accessing harmful and explicit content online, but comes with potentially disastrous privacy risks.

Users visiting sites hosting "explicit material" will now have to prove they are over 18 years old. Credit card checks, AI-powered facial age estimation, and uploading photo ID are just some of the ways this can be done.

However, this puts highly sensitive information in the hands of third-party companies, and many users appear to be turning to the best VPNs as a way of avoiding age verification checks.

One of these VPN providers, Proton VPN, saw a huge spike in sign ups to its VPN from those in the UK.

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A significant and sustained surge

The Proton VPN Observatory reported that Proton VPN sign ups in the UK have increased by 1,400% over the baseline. The spike started on July 25 – the day the age verification law came into effect – and remains high.

"Just a few minutes after the Online Safety Act went into effect last night, Proton VPN signups originating in the UK surged by more than 1,400%," Proton VPN said on X.

"Unlike previous surges, this one is sustained, and is significantly higher than when France lost access to adult content."

Proton VPN has seen a large spike in usage thanks to Proton VPN Free. Its free service is one of the best free VPNs and will encrypt your data and protect your privacy.

Google Trends showed a significant spike in UK search traffic for the search term VPN, with UK VPN and free VPN also seeing increases.

Searches for NordVPN and Proton VPN saw large increases. Surfshark saw a medium increase in searches. ExpressVPN and Mullvad also saw search increases, albeit smaller than the other VPN providers.

This clearly shows that people in the UK don't feel comfortable handing over their personal data for age checks and are looking at ways of bypassing them.

How do VPNs bypass age verification checks?

Right now, VPNs are the tools being used to bypass age verification checks.

When you visit a website, the site and your internet service provider (ISP), can see your IP address. If your IP address is a UK one, you will be greeted by age verification checks and account creation requests.

Connecting to a VPN allows you to change this IP address. By doing so, your ISP can't track your internet traffic and the website only sees the VPN IP address.

If you connect to a VPN server in another country, it appears as though your IP address is accessing a website from that location.

OFCOM has discouraged VPN use to avoid age verification checks. The regulator is the brains behind this law and has told platforms they mustn't encourage VPN use.

There is a concern that steps will be taken to block or restrict access to sites when connected to a VPN. This would further impact people's privacy and internet freedoms and set a dangerous precedent.