Under the Online Safety Act, UK residents who want to access NSFW platforms will need to prove they’re over 18. The easiest way to avoid doing that is to use a VPN.
In the minutes after the Online Safety Act took effect on July 25, sign-ups to one popular VPN service in the UK surged by more than 1,400%.
The law requires users to prove they are over 18 to access adult content, dating apps, and some types of content on social media. A Proton VPN spokesperson tells Mashable that it saw a spike in activity at midnight on Friday and again at 9 a.m. BST.
Sign-ups in France also spiked by roughly 1,000% over baseline when the country began implementing similar rules on June 4. And in Turkey, signups to the VPN spiked 1,100% after the president’s primary political opponent was jailed, leading to violent unrest across the country and social media restrictions.
