England’s children’s commissioner has demanded that the government stop children from using virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around age verification on porn sites.
Calling for change, Dame Rachel de Souza warned it is “absolutely a loophole that needs closing” as she released a new report, which found the proportion of children saying they have seen pornography online has risen in the past two years, with most likely to have stumbled upon it accidentally.
VPNs are tools that connect internet users to websites via remote servers, enabling them to hide their real IP address and location, which includes allowing them to look as if they are online but in another country. This means the Online Safety Act, which now forces platforms to check users’ ages if attempting to access some adult content, can be dodged.
A government spokesperson told The Independent that VPNs are legal tools for adults and there are no plans to ban them.
After sites such as PornHub, Reddit and X introduced age verifcation requirements last month, VPNs became the most downloaded apps, according to the BBC.
Dame Rachel told Newsnight: “Of course, we need age verification on VPNs – it’s absolutely a loophole that needs closing and that’s one of my major recommendations.”
She called on ministers to look at requiring VPNs “to implement highly effective age assurances to stop underage users from accessing pornography”.
More than half (58 per cent) of respondents to the commissioner’s survey said that, as children, they had seen pornography involving strangulation, while 44 per cent reported seeing a depiction of rape – specifically someone who was asleep.
Made up of responses from 1,020 people aged between 16 and 21 years old, the report also found that while children were on average aged 13 when they first saw pornography, more than a quarter (27 per cent) said they were 11, and some reported being aged “six or younger”.
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The research suggested four in 10 respondents felt girls can be “persuaded” to have sex even if they say no at first, and that young people who had watched pornography were more likely to think this way.
The report, a follow-on from research by the Children’s Commissioner’s office in 2023, found a higher proportion (70 per cent) of people saying they had seen online pornography before turning 18, up from 64 per cent of respondents two years ago.
Boys (73 per cent) were more likely than girls (65 per cent) to report seeing online pornography.
A majority (59 per cent) of children and young people said they had seen pornography online by accident – a rise from 38 per cent in 2023.
Dame Rachel said her research is evidence that harmful content is being presented to children through dangerous algorithms, rather than them seeking it out.
She described the content young people are seeing as “violent, extreme and degrading” and often illegal, and said her office’s findings must be seen as a “snapshot of what rock bottom looks like”.
Dame Rachel said: “This report must act as a line in the sand. The findings set out the extent to which the technology industry will need to change for their platforms to ever keep children safe.
“Take, for example, the vast number of children seeing pornography by accident. This tells us how much of the problem is about the design of platforms, algorithms and recommendation systems that put harmful content in front of children who never sought it out.”
The research was done in May, ahead of new online safety measures coming into effect last month, including age checks to prevent children accessing pornography and other harmful content.
A Department of Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson told The Independent: “Children have been left to grow up in a lawless online world for too long, bombarded with pornography and harmful content that can scar them for life. The Online Safety Act is changing that.
“Let’s be clear: VPNs are legal tools for adults and there are no plans to ban them. But if platforms deliberately push workarounds like VPNs to children, they face tough enforcement and heavy fines.
“We will not allow corporate interests to come before child safety. This is about drawing a line – no more excuses, no more loopholes. Protecting children online must come first.”
