Story perspectives

Kids Draw Mustaches, 32% Dodge UK Age Checks

5/2/2026

Summary

Story summary

Children draw moustaches with eyebrow pencils to bypass social-media age-verification systems.
A 2025-2026 Internet Matters survey of 1,270 UK children and parents found 32% evaded age checks.
Ofcom, enforcing the Online Safety Act, requires platforms to use credit-card checks or facial-recognition for verification.
Forty-nine percent of children saw violent or hateful content while only 39% of parents and 42% of children felt safety improved, though 68% noticed new reporting tools.

History

Historical Context

Britain’s Digital Economy Act 2017 required online adult sites to verify users’ ages, and the 2019 Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations set the criteria for compliance. After the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport spent £5.2 million, only 1.5 million checks were completed before the scheme was abandoned in October 2019, leaving Ofcom to enforce new safeguards under the Online Safety Act.

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Story summary

Children draw moustaches with eyebrow pencils to bypass social-media age-verification systems.
A 2025-2026 Internet Matters survey of 1,270 UK children and parents found 32% evaded age checks.
Ofcom, enforcing the Online Safety Act, requires platforms to use credit-card checks or facial-recognition for verification.
Forty-nine percent of children saw violent or hateful content while only 39% of parents and 42% of children felt safety improved, though 68% noticed new reporting tools.

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