The UK's controversial Online Safety Act (OSA) mandated sites take measures to stop children accessing some parts of the internet through a series of checks, like seeking a digital ID, or simply analysing one's face to see if they look over 18. Since it started to roll out over a year ago, the online landscape has changed significantly, though a new report suggests children are bypassing it in creative ways.
According to Internet Matters and its survey of 1,270 UK children between the ages of 9 and 16 (plus their parents), 46% of children believe checks are easy to bypass. A mother of a 12-year-old boy says, “I did catch my son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old.”
Reportedly, 32% of children have bypassed age checks, with 13% entering a fake birth date, 9% u...
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