{“lastseen”:”2026-05-07T12:05:07″,”description”:”A report based on a survey by the UK\u2019s Internet Matters shows that much of the responsibility for managing the online safety of children still falls on families.\\n\\nThe Online Safety Act came into effect in July, 2025, and the report explores what has changed in the online lives of UK families since then.\\n\\nWe discussed in December 2025 whether the privacy risks of age verification outweighed the enhanced child protection. While the report shows some progress, it mostly provides \u201can early view of how the online landscape is changing, and crucially, where it is not.\u201d\\n\\nAround half of children say they now see more age-appropriate content, and roughly four in ten parents and children feel the online world has become somewhat safer.\\n\\nThe online world is as much a part of a child\u2019s environment as the physical world is. And blocking the view to parts of that world is not taken lightly. Almost half of children think age checks are easy to bypass. About a third admit to doing so recently, using tactics from fake birthdates and borrowed logins to spoofed faces and, less commonly, VPNs.\\n\\n\\u003e \u201cI did catch my son [12] using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old.\u201d\\n\\nYet 90% of children who noticed improved blocking and reporting saw this as a good thing. Their support for these safety features is pragmatic. They point to:\\n\\n * clearer rules\\n * restricted contact with strangers\\n * limits on high-risk functions\\n\\n\\n\\nThey also rate these features as helpful in reducing exposure to harmful content and interactions.\\n\\nBut the system is not perfect. In the month after the child protection codes came into force, almost half of children reported some online harm, including violent, hateful, and body image-related content that should be covered by the Act\u2019s protections.\\n\\nThe survey also revealed that age checks are now commonplace. Over half of children said they were asked to verify their age within a recent two-month window, often on major platforms like TikTok, YouTube\/Google, and Roblox, on both new and existing accounts.\\n\\nThe technology is improving. Platforms use facial age estimation, government ID, and third-party age assurance apps, and these are usually easy for children to complete.\\n\\nHowever, gains in protection come with unresolved and, in some cases, growing concerns around privacy and data use, especially around age verification and AI.\\n\\nParents are worried not just about what data is collected for age checks, but whether it will be stored or reused by government or industry. This has fueled calls for central, privacy-protective solutions rather than fragmented data collection across platforms.\\n\\nBecause age assurance systems are both intrusive (in terms of data) and often ineffective (easy workarounds, weak enforcement), the report suggests they may not yet provide a good safety-to-privacy trade-off from a family perspective.\\n\\nObviously, the survey also didn\u2019t capture input from adults pretending to be children to gain access to child-only spaces, a risk that parents link directly to predatory behavior.\\n\\nThe authors conclude that the Online Safety Act has started to reshape children\u2019s online environments, making safety features more visible and enabling more age\u2011appropriate experiences in some areas.\\n\\nHowever, the Act has not yet produced a \u201cstep change.\u201d Harmful content remains widespread, age\u2011assurance is patchy and easy to circumvent, and key concerns such as time spent online, AI risks, and persuasive design remain under\u2011regulated.\\n\\n* * *\\n\\n**Browse like no one’s watching.** \\n\\nMalwarebytes Privacy VPN encrypts your connection and never logs what you do, so the next story you read doesn’t have to feel personal. Try it free \u2192”,”published”:”2026-05-07T10:21:22″,”modified”:”2026-05-07T10:21:22″,”type”:”malwarebytes”,”title”:”If a fake moustache can fool age checks, is the Online Safety Act working?”,”source”:””,”references”:””,”id”:”MALWAREBYTES:F6ADC9486EDED75908EC3942EE314639″,”bulletinFamily”:”blog”,”cwe”:null,”cvelist”:[],”sourceData”:””,”sourceHref”:””,”cvss”:{“score”:0,”severity”:”NONE”,”vector”:”NONE”,”version”:”NONE”},”cvss2″:{},”cvss3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””,”cvssV3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””}},”href”:”https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.com\/blog\/family-and-parenting\/2026\/05\/if-a-fake-moustache-can-fool-age-checks-is-the-online-safety-act-working”,”category_name”:”News”,”post_link”:””,”product”:””,”version”:””,”vendor”:””,”ai_description”:””,”ai_severity”:””,”ai_vendor”:””,”ai_product”:””,”ai_version”:””,”ai_score”:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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