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The Sun
14 hours ago
- Politics
- The Sun
VPN downloads surge as UK age-check rules block adult sites – & Government reveals whether ‘privacy apps' will be BANNED
A BAN on VPNs used to get around porn age verification checks has been ruled out. VPN apps have skyrocketed since the Online Safety Act came into effect last week. 3 3 It's designed to protect children from harmful material and is enforced by the media regulator Ofcom. The tool is a common and legal way to disguise your location online for privacy. Any sites hosting adult content must now check people's age by asking for their ID in a similar way to buying booze in the real world, or sharing a selfie which estimates how old you are. Some users have resorted to using VPNs as a loophole, over concerns about sharing their personal data. VPN apps have dominated the top of the Apple App Store since the rules kicked in on Friday. But there have been questions about whether they could be banned as a result. Tech Secretary Peter Kyle has revealed that the Government is "not considering a VPN ban". Pointing to 6.2 million downloads of age verification software Yoti, he told Times Radio there were 'far more people who are actually there to prove their age in a legitimate way'. "So you will find a small number of people who will use VPNs, most of them will be adults themselves," he said. "But you will see now moving forward, a new online experience for children and parents. Big changes come to PornHub and a dozen other XXX sites "They will notice the difference. "It is the biggest step forward in safety since the invention of the internet. "When it comes to children, that is something we celebrate. "Adults should get behind the aid verification system, because every time they do it, you keep a child safe." The Labour minister also sparked a blazing row with Nigel Farage, alleging the Reform Party leader's vow to repeal online safety laws amounts to backing predators gaining access to children. Some 6,000 porn sites started age checks on Friday. Those that don't comply could be fined or banned completely from the UK. THE SHOCKING STATS Latest figures show the scale of adult content consumption online... Ofcom stats: Around 8% children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month. 15% of 13–14-year-olds accessed online porn in a month. Boys aged 13-14 are the most likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (19% vs 11%). Our research tells us that around three in ten (29%) or 13.8m UK adults use porn online. Pornhub is the most used site in the UK – Ofcom research says 18% (8.4m) visited it in one month. Children's Commissioner stats: Of the 64% who said that they had ever seen online pornography: The average age at which children first see pornography is 13. By age nine, 10% had seen pornography, 27% had seen it by age 11 and half of children who had seen pornography had seen it by age 13. We also find that young people are frequently exposed to violent pornography, depicting coercive, degrading or pain-inducing sex acts; 79% had encountered violent pornography before the age of 18. Pornography is not confined to dedicated adult sites. We found that Twitter was the online platform where young people were most likely to have seen pornography. Image credit: Getty
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
VPNs top App Store charts as Online Safety Act age checks kick in
Virtual private network (VPN) apps have become the most downloaded on Apple's App Store in the UK after sites such as PornHub, Reddit and X began requiring age verification of users on can disguise your location online - allowing you to use the internet as though you are in another means people are likely using them to bypass requirements of the Online Safety Act, which mandated platforms with certain adult content to start checking the age of of Monday morning, half of the top ten free apps in Apple's app download charts in the UK appeared to be for VPN one app maker told the BBC it had seen an 1,800% spike in downloads. Virtual private networks (VPN) connect users to websites using a remote server and conceal their actual IP address and location, meaning they can circumvent blocks on particular sites or experts say free versions of such apps or services can carry security and privacy risks."Many of these free VPNs are riddled with issues," said Daniel Card, a cyber-security expert with the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS)."Some act as traffic brokers for data harvesting firms, others are so poorly built they expose users to attacks."He told the BBC despite posing a range of potential privacy risks, such apps "end up in the hands of kids trying to watch age-restricted content", or adults "trying to get round blocks"."That's the uncomfortable truth: people will take risks to get what they want online," he said. The UK's new online safety rules, explained:What is the Online Safety Act?How could age checks for porn work in the UK?From Reddit to Pornhub: Which sites will require UK age verification?The debate: Will new rules for porn sites do more harm than good? Katie Freeman-Tayler, of children's safety group Internet Matters, said on Thursday that availability of free and low cost VPN services to children, and their potential use of them, was "concerning"."This makes it easy for them to circumvent important protections introduced under the Online Safety Act, such as age checks designed to shield them from adult content," she told the Ofcom says platforms required to introduce "highly effective" methods to check user age must not host, share or permit content that encourages use of VPNs to get around age government has also told the BBC it would be illegal for platforms to do so. Privacy-conscious Proton VPN, an app offered by Swiss privacy tech firm Proton, told the BBC it had seen a 1800% spike in UK daily sign-ups over the weekend after age check rules took effect on Friday.A Proton spokesperson said the UK was now among countries generating the highest usage of its VPN."This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their privacy," they free VPN apps appearing in the App's Stores top charts on Monday say they display adverts in order to finance and operate their services for say they do not share information with third-parties, and state they are not intended for use by children. All state their VPN connections are private, secure and encrypted."While more privacy-conscious users might stick to reputable services... the average person won't," said Mr Card."They'll download the first free app with decent reviews, often without realising they're handing over access to their data." Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
Engadget
3 days ago
- Business
- Engadget
People in the UK now have to take an age verification selfie to watch porn online
As of Friday, anyone trying to watch porn online in the UK will need to subject themselves to an awkward selfie or get their photo ID ready. The UK government announced it will start checking compliance with its Online Safety Act, which requires any website that publishes or displays pornographic content to implement a system for "highly effective age checks." Ofcom, the UK's media regulatory agency, offered a few methods for sites to provide more extensive age verification, including credit card checks, photo ID matching and even estimating a user's age with a provided selfie. Several popular porn sites, including the country's most-visited site PornHub, have agreed to the new regulations. Beyond popular porn providers, social media sites like Reddit and Bluesky, have already implemented an age verification system that complies with the Online Safety Act's rules. Savvy internet users are already circumventing the age checks by using a VPN, providing a fake ChatGPT-generated photo ID, or taking a high-quality selfie of video game characters. However, the UK's new law also makes it illegal for websites to promote VPNs that get around age verification. To make sure the Online Safety Act is effective, Ofcom will fine companies caught breaking the rules with fines of up to £18 million or 10 percent of their global revenue.
Metro
4 days ago
- Metro
We checked porn sites at work - for one very important reason
It's not often your boss asks if you could check out a few porn websites at work. Today, though, there's a very good reason for doing so – one of the biggest changes to the way people access porn has come into effect. Two decades ago, smut was usually found in a magazine on the top shelf at your local supermarket or in the dimly lit section of a video rental shop. That landscape is almost unrecognisable today. Pornography, from 'single ladies in your area' to violent imagery, can be accessed with just a few clicks. But from today, millions of adults trying to access pornography in the UK will be required to prove that they are over the age of 18 under the sweeping Online Safety Bill. So we thought we would see how it's going – how many porn sites have introduced checks, and how effective are they? Under the act, pornography companies, social media platforms and other services will be required to introduce age-verification measures to prevent children from accessing certain content. Guidelines by the media regulator Ofcom say age-checks must be 'technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair'. Self-reporting checkboxes that allow anyone to claim they're 18 or over on porn websites will be replaced by document checks, age-estimating face scans, credit card validations and more, said Pavel Goldman Kalaydin, head of AI/ML at global verification and anti-fraud leader at Sumsub. 'Superficial, easily bypassed forms of age gating are no longer acceptable,' he told Metro. 'Everything will hinge on whether the systems put in place now meet the definition of 'robust' set out in the legislation.' Kalaydin said XXX websites can meet this by doing multi-step processes, such as combining document inspections with artificial intelligence (AI). 'An AI-powered neural network scans a face and creates a 3D map to analyse movement, facial features, lighting, and other key signs of reality,' he added. 'This same process can be used to estimate age, by looking at specific features and tell-tale signs of age, like 'crows feet' for example. While accuracy is improving, though, it isn't 100%.' If adult websites don't comply with theOnline Safety Act, they can be fined up to 10% of their worldwide revenue by Ofcom. Sites based outside the UK also need to implement age checks. While adult content sites will be expected to do this, social media sites such as X and Reddit have also agreed to introduce verification. The most visited pornographic services in the UK, like PornHub, YouPorn and RedTube, confirmed to Ofcom they'll be complying with the age checks last month. When accessing them, a pop-up reads: 'To continue, we are required to verify that you are 18 or older, in line with the UK Online Safety Act.' PornHub directs users to a verification tool, AllpassTrust, where they can be sent a code via email or phone number to view pornography. According to the site's Age Verification Page, Ofcom lists email and mobile network age checks as 'highly effective age assurance measures'. Other pornographic websites Metro looked at now ask people to 'pass AI age verification'. On one site Metro tried, a tool accesses the user's webcam to scan their face – but the image shown on the screen is blurred 'for privacy protection'. Yet some 18+ websites still only require users to create an account and, by doing so, 'certify' that they are 18 or over. Others had no such requirement at all, though they tended to websites akin to a catalogue, where porn clips can be accessed and the full version is available on a different site. A few porn tubes are openly defying the age-check mandate, with XVideos having a link on its front page to a blog post: 'The Scam of Age Verification.' The post touches on concerns from critics, including sex workers, tech firms, free speech advocates and privacy groups, who fear that age-verification measures will undercut privacy and harm free expression. The June post reads: 'The government claims it's needed to catch edge cases – but in reality, it's about shifting responsibility away from parents and ISPs, and dumping it onto websites like ours. 'This, despite the fact that a parent already had to take conscious steps to enable access to adult content for their household, and was prompted to set up parental controls on every device they purchased.' Bellesa, a self-described feminist porn site, can no longer be accessed from the UK. A notice says the law is 'flawed and inadvertently hinders creators from legally sharing their adult content and freedom of artistic expression'. One of the most shocking aspects of how pornography has changed over the years is how it has affected children. The NSPCC told Metro that between April last year and March this year, there were 788 Childline calls where the young person mentioned pornography. They included children who were just 10 years old. One 15-year-old said: 'I know I've got an addiction to adult content. It's all I can think about. I tried to go fully offline for a week recently to stop and I couldn't even do that.' Speaking to Metro, Rani Govender of the NSPCC said the children's charity is 'pleased' that enforcement was beginning on the law. She said: I think we shouldn't underestimate how far this technology has come in terms of its accuracy and in terms of its ability to quickly identify children compared to adults, and to do this in a safe and privacy-preserving way.' However, Rani added there were still some questions over whether the measure will mean people – including children – will be pushed towards less mainstream sources. She said: 'Something that we've been concerned about as the implementation goes on is that as the mainstream and more public sites become safer, harms will migrate further into smaller sites or into private messaging spaces. 'If children aren't accessing harmful material in the public spaces, it will become increasingly circulated in the private ones.' David Wright, the director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, told Metro that the bill brings 'much-needed accountability'. 'While the scale and complexity of online harms continue to evolve, regulation must always keep pace,' he said. Many of the porn websites Metro looked at used Yoti, a company that develops digital ID cards and facial age estimation software. Julia Dawson, Yoti's chief policy and regulatory officer, said the act could help 'solve one of the internet's biggest challenges: how to keep young people safe from harmful content without sacrificing privacy'. She added: 'The costs of inaction could be painful – time to protect users and your business before Ofcom comes knocking.' More Trending But age-check tools aren't foolproof, with Kalaydin warning that deepfake technology is being increasingly used to create phoney documents which can bypass verification. While Ryan T Williams, an online safety expert and father of one, told Metro that regulators need to be wary of virtual private networks (VPNs). These services dig a digital tunnel that shields browsing information from internet service providers. 'VPN sites and sales will also need policing to make this effective,' he said. 'There needs to also be a bigger push on social media sites banning profiles and content, as adult content is easily shared on platforms, such as X, where ID would not be required.' XVideos has been contacted for comment. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Inside Lionesses teammates Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh's 'romance' on and off pitch MORE: My lover praised my oral skills – but I wasn't happy MORE: The way you watch porn is changing today — here's everything you need to know
STV News
5 days ago
- STV News
What are the UK's new online safety rules and how will they be enforced?
From Friday, websites and apps containing pornography or harmful content will require 'highly effective' age verification. The new law under the Online Safety Act enforced by the UK's communications watchdog Ofcom aims to protect children online. Research has found that most teenagers have recently seen 'potentially harmful content'. The changes will force platforms to have a duty of care toward young users. What will the new laws change? From July 25, when the law will be implemented, websites, apps, social media platforms and search engines will be required to do more to protect children. Ofcom has said that it has been too easy for children to see pornography online. According to an Ofcom survey, 8% of children aged eight to 14 had visited an online porn site or app in the previous month – including around 3% of eight to nine-year-olds – the youngest children asked. Platforms will now require a 'highly effective' barrier stopping anyone who cannot prove they are over 18. Ofcom said thousands of sites have already committed to age checks including the UK's biggest pornography site PornHub as well as dating apps and social media sites such Discord and Reddit. How can you prove your age? Websites and apps can use various methods to verify a user's age and they might carry out checks themselves or use a another company to do it for them. AI age estimation – Technology will analyse a photo of video of your face to estimate your age – Technology will analyse a photo of video of your face to estimate your age Open banking – An age-check service will securely access information from your bank about whether you are over 18 – An age-check service will securely access information from your bank about whether you are over 18 Digital ID – Services such as digital identity wallets can securely store and share information which proves your age Services such as digital identity wallets can securely store and share information which proves your age Credit card – Because you must be over 18 to have a credit card, providing your card details allows a payment processor to check if the card is valid – Because you must be over 18 to have a credit card, providing your card details allows a payment processor to check if the card is valid Email-based age estimation – Technology uses your email address to analyse other online services where it has been used, such as banking or utility providers – Technology uses your email address to analyse other online services where it has been used, such as banking or utility providers Mobile network operator – The service checks whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it – The service checks whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it Photo-ID matching – You upload an image of a document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time – these are compared to confirm if the document is yours How will this effect social media? Social media companies have been criticised for failing to protect children online. Under the new laws, Ofcom says platforms such as Facebook and Instagram must 'configure their algorithms to filter out harmful content from children's feeds'. This includes content including self-harm, suicide, porn, eating disorders and violent content. It also includes content that is misogynistic, violent, hateful or abusive material such as online bullying and dangerous viral challenges. Platforms will also need to implement easier reporting and moderation of harmful content and must respond to complaints with appropriate action. According to Ofcom, 31% of children that go online have seen something that they found worrying or nasty. How will websites be held to account? Ofcom has said these new codes demand platforms take a 'safety-first' approach when operating in the UK. Sites and apps will not be told how to regulate their own platforms and they must carry out their own child risk assessments. But Ofcom will be responsible for enforcing these new rules. Platforms that fail to comply risk facing a fine of up to £18m or 10% of revenue and could be shut out of the UK entirely. Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive, said: 'These changes are a reset for children online. 'They will mean safer social media feeds with less harmful and dangerous content, protections from being contacted by strangers and effective age checks on adult content.' 'Ofcom has been tasked with bringing about a safer generation of children online, and if companies fail to act they will face enforcement.' STV News is now on WhatsApp Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
