In October of 2023, the UK’s “Online Safety Act” (OSA) received royal assent, allowing authorities to implement restrictions on social media and search services to reduce the risk of illegal activity. The law applies to user-to-user sites, search services, and “Not Safe For Work” (NSFW) sites, requiring websites to use verification methods preapproved by the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom). With all parts of the act being in place and enforced by July 24, the two popular methods for sites were requiring a photo of identification or submitting a photo of yourself to a facial recognition service before using their site.
The UK government has reported that this has affected over 24,000 companies in the UK, most of which are NSFW sites that block anyone unable to verify their identity. Popular social media and streaming platforms, such as Spotify and YouTube, have also implemented more drastic measures if you do not confirm that you are an adult on their platforms.
YouTube has now implemented an AI tool that estimates your age based on what you watch, according to their July blog post. The tool blocks certain types of content and ads, sets time limits and sleep reminders, and can only be turned off by uploading an ID.
Spotify implemented a similar age verification check where anyone over 18 needs an ID proof, or they cannot access any songs marked as “explicit.” If you fail to confirm your age, your account will be permanently deleted.
Despite how strictly this act is seemingly enforced, there are many flaws that minors can exploit. The most common workaround is to install a VPN for your device. A VPN masks your real location by changing your IP address so it appears you’re in other places. It is no surprise that a popular VPN company, MalwareBytes, reported a 1,712% rise in UK VPN usage in July of this year.
in the UK before and after the Act was
implemented (made by Jaden Holtz
using MalwareBytes’ data)
“Some people are finding their way around [the legislation]. Very few children will be going actively out there searching for harmful content,” Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, told Sky News.
Another easy solution is for minors to find an alternative site not yet affected by the safety laws. On Sept. 11, Ofcom itself identified 25 NSFW sites that saw increased internet traffic after the laws were passed, with a reported 47% decrease in traffic for popular NSFW sites.
Collective Shout’s Video Game Rampage
Collective Shout is an Australian activist group whose members are anti-pornography, anti-abortion and anti-domestic abuse. Founded in 2009, they have since petitioned the Australian government and other companies for an outright ban on pornography in the country.
They have also gone after magazines and other businesses for showing off women in a “provocative” manner, and also attempted to get many rappers, such as Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Tyler, the Creator’s visas revoked because they “incite violence against women” in their songs. However, regardless of their victories or defeats, their actions only affected Australia until 2025.
In July 2025, Collective Shout sent numerous emails to the parent companies of two large online video game stores, Steam and Itch.io, urging them to remove NSFW games, but received no response. They then, according to The Guardian, resorted to emailing payment processors used by these sites, such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, stating that allowing these games to be sold constituted a breach of their rules that the sites had failed to uphold. In response, the payment processors threatened to refuse service if the games were not taken down. While the general public may think that NSFW content being less accessible for minors is a good thing, these types of games have not been Collective Shout’s first target.
“Detroit: Become Human,” developed by Quantic Dream and released in 2018, is a multi-awarded, massively successful video game that sold over 1 million units within two weeks of its release.
The video game’s story is set in a world like our own. In the year 2038, humans have integrated androids into their everyday lives. These androids range from labor workers, police officers, or even caretakers/maids. While these androids are supposed to be strict listeners to their owners, occasionally, a few can break free from their programming and are labelled as “deviants.” To the public, these deviants are portrayed as evil killers but, as the story progresses, we see that the deviants just want the same fundamental rights as humans. The plot follows three androids who, based on the player’s decisions, eventually become deviants and whose individual stories inevitably converge at the climax.
One of these androids is Kara, who is the housekeeper to a family. As a program-following android, she is forced to watch the family’s child be a victim of domestic abuse. However, she eventually becomes a deviant, saves the girl from the household, and her storyline shows her doing everything she can to protect the girl. Since its release, Collective Shout has attempted to ban the game, and others like it, for depicting child abuse.
Skitu Ordedi, 17, believes there should be more representation of such struggles in the media, like in Detroit. While Mariana Aguliar, 16, had never heard of the game before being asked about it, she believes there should be a middle ground when it comes to sensitive topics in games.
Why This Matters
The UK’s OSA has already led to the proposal of two similar acts in the US Congress: the “Kids’ Online Safety Act” and the “Screen Act.” Both are essentially two halves of the OSA, with potential additional measures to address VPN bypasses, but neither has been passed yet. Regardless of the status, already 25 US States, including Georgia, have passed similar laws, restricting website usage to “protect” minors. Other companies, including Spotify, have announced they will eventually implement the UK restrictions in different countries, regardless of their safety laws, with others like Google already doing so.
Collective Shout’s efforts have proved that nowhere is safe from censorship.
Not only do these laws have significant flaws, allowing millions of minors to bypass them easily, but they also raise general safety concerns. In 2022, the US-only, women-only “Tea Dating Advice” app was created, allowing women to share information on men and receive general dating advice. Despite many on social media criticizing the app for being “anti-men,” it surged in popularity. Since it was created to be women-only, it required users to verify their identities. However, this led to the app being hacked in July 2025, according to the BBC, and over 77,000 images, IDs, addresses and private messages became easily accessible to anyone online. Even worse, interactive maps of the US were released that showed pins for some women who used the app, and sometimes even included their names and pictures.
Christopher Sutton, 15, pointed me to a similar incident that happened on a much larger platform, Discord. In October 2025, the platform was hacked, and several thousand addresses, emails, and IDs were leaked to the public.
”The internet is a sprawling, nebulous space that people are going to find an avenue to travel to where they want to get that content,” says Jamal Michel, a journalist specializing in video games, digital media and culture. “You look at a cesspool like Twitter, and it’s quite literally turned into that because of the people enabling that content, because of the people who refuse to let go of the reins of moderation.”
Even though censorship has historically led to harmful societies, there is always messaging that implies this is for the greater good. But Michel wonders who gets to control those narratives. “Because all of these ideas are really abstract,” he says, “There’s no concrete way to denote something as obscene or provocative without bringing your political motives, your cultural views, your societal and religious views into that same conversation.”
Sutton and other Atlanta teens, including Jayden Calhoun, 16, and Ni Jue Aung, 17, all agreed that they would rather use alternative sites, as minors in the UK have done, than put all their sensitive information online.
But Allisson Figueroa-Oliva, 17, stated that “They may have their flaws, but in the end these laws protect children more than they hurt the rest of us.” This ties into an idea Aguliar mentioned: “I think the idea is good, but it should be enforced by parents rather than the government.”
