Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, working in collaboration with Nominet, has published new research exploring young people’s use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to access online content. The study surveyed 2,018 children aged 8-17 and 2,000 parents and carers across the UK.
The data findings reveal that, although the widely reported surge in VPN use in July 2025 has often been linked to the enforcement of the Online Safety Act (OSA) age verification requirements on online pornography providers, this increase cannot be attributed to children and young people.
The research found that:
- 23% of young people said they started using VPNs in the last three months, this is consistent with the number who started using VPNs 1 year (21%) ago
- The most popular reasons children gave for using a VPN were to stay safe online and protect their privacy (38%)
- 16% of children who used VPNs said they used them to get around parental controls, and 16% said they used VPNs to get around school wifi blocks and monitoring.
- 10% of young people who use a VPN (an indicative only figure), said they used VPNs to look at things which they are not supposed to see for their age.
Internet Matters have also released data which comes to similar conclusions. Their research found that the number of children using VPNs has remained consistent over the past two years, and that the most common reasons children give for using a VPN is for data protection and accessing restricted entertainment content like sports, films or TV.
© 2025 Childnet International