UK VPN Sign-Ups Surge by Over 1,400 % as Age-Verification Law Takes Effect
New Online Safety Act requirements on adult content trigger sharp increase in Proton VPN registrations
The introduction of mandatory age-verification rules for adult and sensitive online content in the United Kingdom has coincided with a dramatic surge in sign-ups for one of the country’s most prominent virtual private network services.
On July 25 2025—the day the relevant provisions of the Online Safety Act came into force—the company Proton VPN reported an hourly increase in new UK registrations of over 1,400 per cent relative to its baseline.
The legislation mandates that websites and applications hosting pornographic content, as well as platforms exposing users to self-harm, suicide or eating-disorder content, must now deploy “highly effective” age-checking systems.
These may include identity-document uploads, facial-age estimation algorithms or bank/credit-card verification.
The aim is to protect minors from accessing potentially harmful material.
According to the company’s public observatory dashboard, the surge began just minutes after midnight on Friday and continued with a second spike around 9 a.m. British Summer Time.
The rise not only demonstrates user resistance to the new verification regime but also highlights concerns about privacy, data protection and the ease of circumventing location-based restrictions via VPNs.
Industry analysts note that the spike reflects a broader pattern: when government regulation tightens online access, privacy-tools such as VPNs often experience rapid adoption.
In the United Kingdom, the regulator Ofcom has advised that users must not be encouraged to use VPNs to bypass age checks, and warned that sites failing to comply may face fines of up to ten per cent of global turnover or formal blocking.
The phenomenon also raises questions about enforcement.
VPNs enable users to mask their geographic location, potentially appearing to browse from outside the United Kingdom and thereby avoiding the age-verification requirement.
Privacy advocates argue that requiring biometric data or ID-checks for accessing lawful content may undermine user anonymity and invite broader data-collection risks.
The spike reported by Proton VPN follows a similar rise in June when French regulations prompted the company to record a near 1,000 per cent increase in new subscribers.
The United Kingdom’s response appears far more pronounced—and sustained, according to internal metrics shared with the press.
As age-verification compliance becomes more widespread across platforms and apps, the interplay between child-protection regulation and digital-privacy tools is emerging as a key policy battleground.
Whether the regulatory framework can curtail under-age access while maintaining robust privacy safeguards remains a live question for UK authorities and technology providers alike.
On July 25 2025—the day the relevant provisions of the Online Safety Act came into force—the company Proton VPN reported an hourly increase in new UK registrations of over 1,400 per cent relative to its baseline.
The legislation mandates that websites and applications hosting pornographic content, as well as platforms exposing users to self-harm, suicide or eating-disorder content, must now deploy “highly effective” age-checking systems.
These may include identity-document uploads, facial-age estimation algorithms or bank/credit-card verification.
The aim is to protect minors from accessing potentially harmful material.
According to the company’s public observatory dashboard, the surge began just minutes after midnight on Friday and continued with a second spike around 9 a.m. British Summer Time.
The rise not only demonstrates user resistance to the new verification regime but also highlights concerns about privacy, data protection and the ease of circumventing location-based restrictions via VPNs.
Industry analysts note that the spike reflects a broader pattern: when government regulation tightens online access, privacy-tools such as VPNs often experience rapid adoption.
In the United Kingdom, the regulator Ofcom has advised that users must not be encouraged to use VPNs to bypass age checks, and warned that sites failing to comply may face fines of up to ten per cent of global turnover or formal blocking.
The phenomenon also raises questions about enforcement.
VPNs enable users to mask their geographic location, potentially appearing to browse from outside the United Kingdom and thereby avoiding the age-verification requirement.
Privacy advocates argue that requiring biometric data or ID-checks for accessing lawful content may undermine user anonymity and invite broader data-collection risks.
The spike reported by Proton VPN follows a similar rise in June when French regulations prompted the company to record a near 1,000 per cent increase in new subscribers.
The United Kingdom’s response appears far more pronounced—and sustained, according to internal metrics shared with the press.
As age-verification compliance becomes more widespread across platforms and apps, the interplay between child-protection regulation and digital-privacy tools is emerging as a key policy battleground.
Whether the regulatory framework can curtail under-age access while maintaining robust privacy safeguards remains a live question for UK authorities and technology providers alike.
