New research from Childnet shows that the ‘surge’ in VPN use following the introduction of age verification in the summer is not attributable to children
Groundbreaking research launched today by Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, together with Nominet, looks at young people’s use of VPNs.
This data found that although the widely reported spike in VPN use in July has often been linked to the enforcement of the Online Safety Act (OSA) age verification requirements on online pornography providers, this spike cannot be attributed to children.
The research found that:
- 23% of young people said they started using VPNs in the last three months, this is consistent with the number who started using VPNs 1 year (21%) ago.
- The most popular reasons children gave for using a VPN were to stay safe online and protect their privacy (38%).
- 16% of children who used VPNs said they used them to get around parental controls, and 16% said they used VPNs to get around school wifi blocks and monitoring.
- 10% of young people who use a VPN (an indicative only figure), said they used VPNs to look at things which they are not supposed to see for their age.
What the data shows
Of children who have used VPNs (n=432), 23% said they started using VPNs in the last three months, which connects to the same time period as the introduction of the restrictions. 21% of children answered that they started using VPNs 1 year ago, and 17% answered that they started in the last 6 months.
Although the highest number of children reported starting to use a VPN in the last three months, which is at the same time as this spike that was reported in the media, it is only 2% higher than the number who started 1 year ago.
However, there is an increase in take up of VPN use by children in the last three months (23%), which is at the same time as this spike that was reported in the media, this is a 6% increase on started using a VPN compared to 6 months ago.
Although our data shows the reported surge in VPN use isn’t down to children, that is not to say that there is no impact from the OSA, and we should look at young people’s use of VPNs more closely, while recognising that there are multiple reasons for children to use VPNs.
What young people are saying about VPNs
Whilst conducting this research we also spoke about VPNs with our youth advisory boards and found they had mixed opinion on VPNs.
Some of the young people we spoke to said they have seen no change in VPN use among their peers, but we also heard a young person saying: “I’m aware of the fact that a lot of people I know and people online are sharing that they’re quite routinely using VPNs a lot more. Recently, after the online safety act came into act and things started getting a bit stricter online, certain websites were unable to be accessed by under eighteens. So I know a lot of people using it”.
Our youth boards also share their concerns about VPNs, highlighting a need for greater education around the safe and responsible use of this technology: “If you’re buying VPNs from unsecured places or sketchy people, you can possibly put bugs into your computer or risk your own privacy while trying to protect it”
Methodology
Our survey was conducted with 2,018 children aged 8-17 in the UK and has been weighted to be nationally representative of children in the UK. We also conducted research with 2,000 parents and carers of children aged 8-17 in the UK and the data has been weighted to be nationally representative of parents and carers of children aged 8-17 in the UK.
These surveys were in field 1-12th November 2025.