What is the Online Safety Act?

It is a UK law placing duties on online platforms, most visibly a requirement that sites hosting adult or age-restricted content verify users are over 18, usually via ID or a face scan. The age-verification rules took effect in July 2025.

Why does Reddit dislike the Online Safety Act?

The objection on r/unitedkingdom is not to protecting children but to the rollout: users see age verification as invasive and easy to bypass with a VPN, and they distrust handing ID or selfies to third-party vendors. The most-upvoted takes expect it to be repealed.

Is age verification under the Online Safety Act safe?

The main risk Reddit flags is the verification data itself. Uploading your face or ID to an age-check vendor creates a high-value breach target, and promises to delete it cannot be audited. Real breaches of this kind of data are why the skepticism runs deep.

Can you use a VPN to get around Online Safety Act age checks?

Many people do, and VPNs are legal in the UK. A VPN makes age-gated sites appear to be accessed from abroad, removing the ID demand. It does not, however, recall any ID or selfie you already uploaded before switching one on.

RegulationJuly 20, 20266 min read

The Online Safety Act, According to Reddit (2026)

By Scott, Clearfront founder

If you searched the Online Safety Act with Reddit attached, you want the public verdict rather than the press release, and on r/unitedkingdom that verdict is scathing. The Act's age-verification rules, live since mid-2025, drew a backlash that has only hardened into 2026: users call the rollout predictable, the privacy trade-off unacceptable, and repeal a matter of time. Here is what the threads actually say, including the data-security risk that worries people most and the workaround half the country reached for.

What is Reddit saying about the Online Safety Act?

The dominant reaction is that it was a foreseeable mess. In a widely upvoted r/unitedkingdom thread on age verification tanking site traffic ↗, the top comment, past 1,400 upvotes, put it flatly: "honestly feels like it's only a matter of time until it's repealed." Another summed up the mood: it is not as if "everyone with even an ounce of IT literacy didn't predict this." The criticism is less about protecting children, which few object to, and more about a rollout people see as ineffective and invasive.

What does the Online Safety Act actually require?

At the centre of the backlash is age verification: sites hosting adult or age-restricted content must confirm users are over 18, in practice by checking ID or a face scan. That is what drove the July 2025 flashpoint and the VPN surge. My full explainer on what the Online Safety Act does covers the wider scope, but on Reddit the age-check requirement is the part that lit the fire.

Is uploading your ID for age verification safe?

This is the concern Reddit returns to most, and it is a fair one. The reassurance that a site will take a selfie to confirm you are over 18 and "immediately delete it afterwards" was met with open scorn in the threads, with users citing real breaches of exactly this kind of sensitive verification data. Handing your face or passport to a third-party age-check vendor creates a new, high-value target, and "we'll delete it" is a promise you cannot audit. The honest guide on whether UK age verification is safe goes deeper.

Are people using VPNs to get around it?

In large numbers. VPN apps topped the UK App Store charts the week age verification took effect, and Reddit treats a VPN as the obvious response, since it makes age-gated sites stop demanding ID. That has fed a second worry, about whether the government moves against VPNs next, which I cover in is the UK banning VPNs, according to Reddit.

What you can do about the data you've already handed over

A VPN helps from here on, but it cannot recall an ID or selfie you have already uploaded to an age-check. If you have verified your age on any site this year, the practical step is to find out whether that data, or anything else tied to your identity, has surfaced in a breach. Clearfront scans your digital footprint in one sweep on your own machine, breaches, linked accounts, and public records, without sending anything to us. Install Clearfront free to check your own exposure.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Online Safety Act?: It is a UK law placing duties on online platforms, most visibly a requirement that sites hosting adult or age-restricted content verify users are over 18, usually via ID or a face scan. The age-verification rules took effect in July 2025.
Why does Reddit dislike the Online Safety Act?: The objection on r/unitedkingdom is not to protecting children but to the rollout: users see age verification as invasive and easy to bypass with a VPN, and they distrust handing ID or selfies to third-party vendors. The most-upvoted takes expect it to be repealed.
Is age verification under the Online Safety Act safe?: The main risk Reddit flags is the verification data itself. Uploading your face or ID to an age-check vendor creates a high-value breach target, and promises to delete it cannot be audited. Real breaches of this kind of data are why the skepticism runs deep.
Can you use a VPN to get around Online Safety Act age checks?: Many people do, and VPNs are legal in the UK. A VPN makes age-gated sites appear to be accessed from abroad, removing the ID demand. It does not, however, recall any ID or selfie you already uploaded before switching one on.

Sources and further reading

I believe your personal data is yours to own and protect. I built Clearfront, a free, open-source tool for scanning and scrubbing your own digital footprint from public data, and I write here about OSINT, breach exposure, and personal privacy.

Scott

Clearfront founder