🚦 How the UK Online Safety Act Transforms Your Digital Life (& Why VPNs Are Booming)

📌 TL;DR – Online Safety Act UK 2025

• 🇬🇧 The UK now enforces age checks and content restrictions under the Online Safety Act.
• 🔐 Many websites require ID or block UK users entirely due to compliance issues.
• 📈 VPN usage in the UK has surged as users seek privacy and unrestricted access.
• 💡 ExpressVPN is a top choice for fast, private browsing and accessing blocked content.

What the Online Safety Act Covers

The Online Safety Act 2023, officially enacted on 26 October 2023, is now fully enforced as of 25 July 2025. It mandates that platforms hosting any sort of user-generated content, like social media, forums, messaging apps, search engines, or file-sharing sites, comply with a new legal “duty of care” to protect UK users from harmful or illegal content. This includes materials promoting self-harm, extremist content, explicit adult material, and other serious risks. Large platforms face penalties up to £18 million or 10% of global turnover, whichever is greater.

Age Gating

From July 25, 2025, sites displaying adult content, or broader “priority” topics like self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders, must verify users are over 18 using highly effective tools, such as ID scans, facial recognition, credit card checks, or mobile verification. Platforms failing to comply may be blocked or fined by Ofcom.

Filtering “Legal but Harmful” Content

Even content that is not illegal, such as posts encouraging harmful behaviors or bullying, must be managed carefully. Platforms must proactively hide or filter this material from minors, and allow adults more control over what they see. Dedicated codes of practice and regular risk assessments are now standard.

Transparency & Platform Accountability

All services in scope must publicly disclose their safety policies, user-reporting tools, algorithmic controls, and outcomes. Those classified as Category 1 (e.g. global platforms) must also preserve political and journalistic content, ensuring that free expression isn’t unintentionally suppressed.

Criminal Offenses for Online Harm

The Act creates new criminal laws, including penalties for encouraging self-harm, cyber‑flashing, threatening violent messages, or targeting individuals with flashing imagery. The first convictions under these took place as recently as July 2025.

---

📌 Real Impacts for UK Internet Users

Blocks, Restrictions & Privacy Concerns

Many smaller forums and niche websites have responded to compliance costs by blocking UK access altogether. Even mainstream platforms like Reddit, Discord, and Bluesky now enforce verification flows, infuriating users who fear biometric scanning and ID leaks.

There’s also rising anxiety over data protection. Uploading ID or biometric information to private entities touches on GDPR concerns and risks identity exposure or reuse without proper oversight.

VPN Use Exploding

Virtually overnight, VPN demand in the UK skyrocketed:

• Proton VPN saw user sign-ups rise by more than 1,400% almost immediately when the Act took effect on July 25, far outpacing similar surges in France.
• NordVPN reported a 1,000% increase in UK subscriptions.

VPN apps surged to the top of Britain’s app-store charts, even overtaking ChatGPT in downloads. The spike shows public push-back against invasive age verification.

Free Speech & Encryption Under Pressure

Critics, ranging from civil liberties groups to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, warn that the Act’s encryption-related powers may lead to censorship and surveillance. Ofcom retains the authority to demand weakening of end-to-end encryption, prompting backlash from providers like WhatsApp and Apple. Wikipedia has also launched legal action, refusing to enforce age checks on privacy and access grounds.

---

🔐 Why VPNs Are Emerging as a Lifeline

1. Bypassing Geo-based Blocks & Age Hurdles

A VPN can route your traffic through servers outside the UK, making it appear that you’re browsing from a location where age verification isn’t enforced, helping users regain access to formerly blocked or restricted sites.

2. Shielding Your Identity

VPNs encrypt your connection and hide your IP address, significantly reducing the risk that platforms can tie your browsing history to your identity, even after age-check processes.

3. Avoiding Over-Filtering and Censorship

If UK platforms overzealously filter “legal but harmful” content, VPNs allow access to uncensored versions of forums, communities, or resources that might otherwise be hidden, or wrongly blocked.

---

🏆 Best VPNs for the UK Online Safety Act

📖Reviews of the Best VPNs for UK Users

Check out our in-depth review of the top VPNs that will help you bypass new regulations imposed by the UK Online Safety Act:

• ExpressVPN Review
• NordVPN Review
• Surfshark Review
• ProtonVPN Review

✅ Advice for UK Readers

Tip	Why it matters
Choose audited VPNs with no‑log policies	Minimises privacy risks if age verification data is leaked
Understand age‑gate safety nets	Different platforms use different verification methods—know what’s required
Use VPNs responsibly	VPN use doesn’t override UK law—illegal content is still illegal
Stay informed on ongoing legal challenges	Platforms like Wikipedia are contesting parts of the Act in court; outcomes may change compliance expectations

---

🧩 Summary

The Online Safety Act represents a sweeping overhaul of internet regulation in the UK: mandatory age checks, duty‑of‑care clauses, and new criminal offences. While intended to safeguard users, especially children, it also raises serious concerns about data privacy, access restrictions, and free expression. For many, VPNs have become the go‑to tool for staying private and retaining access, and the surge in VPN usage reflects widespread unease with the Act’s enforcement.

Get 61% off now

Visit ExpressVPN

❓ Frequently Asked Questions – Online Safety Act & VPNs in 2025

Read More