Overview

• The Online Safety Act took effect on July 25, mandating age verification on major websites to shield minors from harmful content.
• Within days of enforcement, five of the ten most-downloaded free apps in UK stores were VPNs.
• Underage users have leveraged these services to bypass geo-based age checks on platforms such as Pornhub, X, Reddit.
• Many free VPNs run without paid subscriptions or third-party audits, creating incentives to monetize user data.
• A 2016 study detected malware in 38% of Android VPN apps, with services like Hola VPN and Hotspot Shield facing official complaints over data exploitation.