Kids 'drawing on fake moustaches to cheat online age checks' as parents given warning

Young people are getting around social media age checks by using fake birthdays, shared accounts, altered photos and even drawing on false moustaches, research has found. Nearly half of children (49%) report experiencing harm online such as exposure to violent or hateful content despite strict online safety laws, according to a new Internet Matters survey. And a similar proportion of kids (46%) believe age checks are easy to bypass, with only 17% saying they are difficult. A third of children (32%) say they have bypassed age checks, including by entering a fake birthdate or using someone else’s login, while others used more creative methods like drawing on facial hair. One parent, whose son is 12-years-old, told the study: "I did catch my son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old." A mum of a 12-year-old girl added: "I don't class it [age verification] as being a deterrent. If anything, because they've had a barrier put up, kids will do everything they can to be the first one to get through it." Ofcom ordered social media firms to enforce robust age checks - such as credit card checks or facial recognition technology - as part of the implementation of the Online Safety Act last summer. Since then safety features have been increasingly visible, the survey found, with around seven in ten children (68%) and parents (67%) seeing more reporting tools and content filters on platforms. But overall improvements are slow with fewer than half of parents (39%) and children (42%) saying the online world has become safer recently. The Government has come under increasing pressure to ban social media for under 16s after Australia introduced a ban at the end of last year. Ministers are currently carrying out a consultation on a range of online safety features, including an outright ban, overnight curfews or app caps. Amid pressure from the House of Lords to ban social media for under 16s, Education Minister Olivia Bailey earlier this week pledged "some form of age or functionality restrictions". But Internet Matters called for age checks to be strengthened if meaningful progress is to be made. Early research from Australia’s ban shows children are circumventing the rules with three in five (61%) 12 to 15 year-olds still accessing one or more accounts on restricted platforms in the country. Rachel Huggins, its chief executive, said: “While some families are beginning to see improvements, progress is patchy and far too slow. Children are still being exposed to harmful content at unacceptable levels, and their experience of age verification systems show they are too often weak or easily tricked.” She added: “The Government has said it is committed to introducing further changes in the law following its consultation. As Ministers consider the next phase of action, safety measures must be designed around the real needs of families and must actually work in practice. “Anything less will fall short of delivering the meaningful change children need to be safe and to thrive online.” An Ofcom spokesman: “This report underlines why the Online Safety Act matters. Without protections like robust age checks, children have been routinely exposed to risks they didn’t choose, on services they can’t realistically avoid. Weak or easily bypassed age checks are not good enough. "In the UK, our rules make tech firms responsible for keeping the platforms children use safer. While progress is being made, we’re clear that there is still more to do. We’ve challenged the biggest services in the world to do more to protect children. We won’t hesitate to act where they fall short.” ::: Internet Matters surveyed 1,270 UK children aged between nine and 16 and their parents in September and October 2025 and held focus groups with children and families in February 2026.