39% of UK children bypass age checks, mostly by lying about their age

Nearly two in five children aged 11 to 17 in the UK have successfully got around an online age check, and over half have deliberately picked a website, app or game to avoid one altogether, according to research that BMG Research conducted for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). BMG surveyed 2,299 children between May 18 and 29, 2026, weighted to represent UK children aged 11 to 17.

Most of that circumvention runs through checks that the Online Safety Act does not consider effective in the first place. The report states that its findings “do not represent government views or policy.”

What age checks do children encounter, and do they think they work?

• The checks children encounter most often are the weakest ones. Most have been asked to tick a box or enter a date of birth. Fewer than half have ever encountered a stronger check, and only 17% have been asked to upload a government ID. Around one in five has never encountered an age check at all.
• Children think the stronger checks work, and the common ones don’t. Among those who have used them, 86% say uploading a government ID is effective. But 54% say ticking a box does not work. Children are “in effect, being asked to satisfy checks that they themselves regard as easy to ignore or bypass,” the report states.
• The law agrees with them. The Online Safety Act’s child safety duties, in force since July 2025, require in-scope services to use highly effective age assurance. Ticking a box or entering a date of birth does not count. Facial age estimation and government ID checks do.

How are children getting past them?

• Avoidance comes first. 53% have deliberately chosen a platform to sidestep a check, either because it had none or because the check looked easy to beat. They went mostly for games, messaging apps and social media platforms they were too young to use.
• 39% have succeeded in bypassing a check, and a further 14% tried without success. Success rises with age, from 28% of 11 to 12-year-olds to 43% of older children.
• Lying about age is the dominant method. Most children who bypassed simply posed as someone older, usually by entering a false date of birth. Using someone else’s ID, or altered images to look older, was rare.
• They learn from each other. 59% learned how from friends or others their own age. Only 10% learned from a parent.

What did it find on VPNs? Around a quarter of children have used a VPN, rising to 31% of 16 and 17-year-olds.

• Location-changing tools are a secondary route. 27% of children who bypassed a check used them, against the 63% who simply posed as someone older. Across the whole population, that amounts to 10% of children versus 24%.
• Privacy, not age-gating, is the main reason children give for using a VPN. The most common reasons are keeping their activity private, accessing content unavailable in the UK, and watching videos from other countries. Only 7% of all children say they use a…