UK survey reveals children bypass age checks, parents often permit it.

A May 2026 survey conducted by Internet Matters, examining age verification under the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), revealed that 32% of children in the UK admitted to bypassing online age checks within the preceding two months. The survey also indicated that 26% of parents acknowledged either assisting their children in bypassing these checks or turning a blind eye to the practice. The survey included 1,270 UK children aged 9 to 16 and their parents.

The survey highlighted the ease with which age verification measures can be circumvented. Over a two-month period, 53% of children reported being asked to verify their age online. The platforms most frequently implementing age verification were TikTok (34%), Google/YouTube (26%), and Roblox (17%).

Various methods of age verification were employed, including facial age recognition (37%), third-party apps (24%), and government ID (22%). However, 46% of children found these checks easy to bypass, while only 17% found them difficult.

Children employed several methods to bypass age restrictions. These included using a fake birthdate (13%), someone else’s login (9%), another person’s device (8%), a VPN (7%), and someone else’s ID (6%).

Among parents, 26% admitted to allowing their child to bypass age checks, with 17% actively helping and 9% allowing or ignoring the practice. The survey also found that 84% of parents supported age checks for accessing pornography.

A significant portion of parents expressed concern about their children bypassing age checks. Specifically, 62% of parents voiced such concerns, with the figure rising to 73% among parents of vulnerable children.

The survey also explored children's experiences with online safety. While 42% of children believed the online world had become safer recently, 16% felt it had become less safe. Among parents, 39% perceived online spaces as safer, while 28% believed they were less safe.

In the previous month, 49% of children reported experiencing online harm, including exposure to violent content (12%), content promoting unrealistic body types (11%), racist, homophobic, or sexist content (10%), requests for personal information (8%), and explicit sexual content (7%).

The survey also revealed children's engagement with online content and its potential impact on their well-being. A substantial 59% of children reported staying up late using devices. Additionally, 46% continued consuming content even when they were no longer enjoying it, and 45% had stopped sports or exercise to stay online.

Concerns about misinformation and AI-generated content were also prevalent. A significant 63% of children expressed worry about fake news and AI-generated content, with 27% reporting that they had believed a fake or AI-generated news story.

The survey also gauged parental perceptions of platform safety. Only 37% of parents considered social media platforms safe for children, compared to 64% for gaming platforms and 53% for AI chatbots.