Everyone's racing to get a VPN today, and here's why

VPNs have long been a major safety net for those browsing the internet, and while they have other benefits like accessing region-exclusive content, they're just as important for privacy. Not only can they stop your ISP from viewing your data, but they also halt companies from throttling your bandwidth. This past week, we've seen a surge in interest in VPNs in the UK, no doubt due to the enforcement of the Online Safety Act.

Google Trends highlights a big recent surge in searches for VPNs in the UK, alinging with enforcement of the UK government's Online Safety Act from today, July 25. Its stated goal is to reduce access to illegal online material and "protect children and adults online." It's doing this by putting new legal duties on providers that force them to, for example, verify a user's age before granting them access to adult content.

It would seem that many are hoping to bypass these age verification checks, partly due to privacy concerns, as some verification methods include photo ID matching, or even verifying via your credit card provider, bank, or mobile network. If sites and apps don't enforce these checks for UK users, however, they could see fines, or - in serious cases - regulator Ofcom may prevent them from being accessible in the UK.

This has led to a spike in interest in VPNs, which mask the user's IP address and re-route their traffic through another country's servers, allowing them to spoof their location and, in theory, access any content that UK users would have to verify their age to see.

The affected sites aren't always the most obvious, with Bluesky and Reddit now requring age verification due to their hosting of some adult content. When we say 'adult content,' it's likely your mind goes straight to porn, but the Online Safety Act also aims to stop those under 18 from accessing "content which encourages self-harm, suicide, or eating disorder content" and "other harmful and age-inappropriate content such as bullying, hateful content, and content which encourages dangerous stunts or ingesting dangerous substances."

While many sites and apps have already rolled out changes to comply with the act, some companies are threatening to pull out of the UK entirely, including Wikipedia, with the non-profit's lead counsel, Phil Bradley-Schmieg, claiming that it is "unfortunate that we must now defend the privacy and safety of Wikipedia's volunteer editors from flawed legislation" in a recent blog post.

As the Online Safety Act comes into play, it will be interesting to see whether any of the major VPNs, like NordVPN or ExpressVPN, ever comment on its impact on their business and UK subscribers. Earlier today, Proton VPN even joked on X about a surge in interest in its service. In another post, it shared that Proton VPN sign-ups surged by over 1,400% in the UK just minutes after the Online Safety Act rolled out. "Unlike previous surges, this one is sustained, and is significantly higher than when France lost access to adult content."