As of July 25, 2025, enforcement of the UK’s Online Safety Act has officially begun, requiring platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to verify users’ ages before granting access to sensitive content. This move is part of a wider government effort to shield minors from harmful online material, including pornography, graphic violence, and self-harm content.
Platforms that fail to comply may face substantial penalties, including hefty fines and potential service restrictions in the UK. Unsurprisingly, many adult users are reluctant to upload government-issued IDs or biometric data to social platforms due to privacy and data security concerns.
If you’re based in the UK and want to continue using X without undergoing intrusive age checks, there are a few workarounds you can safely explore. Read on to learn how to bypass X’s age restriction.
Why Is X Age-Restricted in the UK?
The age restriction on X is not an arbitrary platform decision, but the UK’s Online Safety Act. The law holds platforms accountable for protecting minors from exposure to harmful, violent, or adult content. X, being a globally accessible social media platform with user-generated content, falls squarely within this regulation.
To comply with the law, X now restricts access to specific types of media for users in the UK unless they can prove they are over 18. Here’s why X must now verify users’ ages in the UK:
- The Online Safety Act requires platforms to prevent minors from accessing harmful or adult content.
- X hosts content that includes adult themes, violence, or sensitive or distressing material, triggering the need for age gating.
- Ofcom now actively monitors platform compliance, and non-adherence can lead to multi-million-pound fines or service restrictions in the UK.
- Age verification has become mandatory for all UK-based users accessing sensitive content, regardless of account age or activity.
What Happens If You Try to Use X Without Age Verification?
Attempting to use X from the UK without passing its age verification will likely block you from engaging with sensitive content or specific features. In many cases, users are either prompted to submit an ID, take a selfie for facial age estimation, or confirm their age via a third-party provider.
These age-check systems are designed to be difficult to bypass without a genuine verification attempt. Even if you can browse public content, features like media playback for NSFW tweets or adult-topic trends may be completely hidden.
What might happen if you did not verify your age:
- You won’t be able to view age-restricted tweets or media (e.g. sensitive, violent, or adult content).
- Sensitive content settings may be locked and inaccessible in your profile.
- Attempts to engage with restricted accounts or topics may be blocked.
- X may prompt you to upload a government-issued ID, perform a facial scan, or confirm through mobile networks or bank accounts.
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How to Bypass Twitter (X) Age Verification with a VPN
A VPN is currently the most reliable method to bypass age verification on X in the UK. By changing your IP address to another country, like the US or Canada, you can make it appear as though you are browsing from a region not yet enforcing strict platform-level age-verification mandates.
Many users report that once they’re connected through a non-UK server, X no longer triggers the ID or selfie prompt, and age-restricted content becomes viewable again. Just follow the steps mentioned below:
- Subscribe to a reputable VPN provider like PureVPN.
- Download and install the app on your device (desktop, mobile, etc).
- Launch the VPN and connect to a server in a country without strict age-verification rules, such as the US, Canada, Germany, or France.
- Log into your X account, then go to Settings → Your Account → Account Information and set your country to match the VPN location.
- Go to Privacy and Safety → Content You See, and make sure sensitive content visibility is turned on.
- Refresh the feed or reopen X; age-restricted tweets should now be visible!
Other Ways to Get Around Twitter’s Age Verification
While a VPN is the most effective method, it’s not the only option. Other strategies may help you bypass age checks, though they often work best when combined with a VPN or used selectively. These techniques vary in reliability and success based on the device and account history.
Some of these methods may only offer temporary solutions, but if you are privacy-conscious or unable to install a VPN, you can:
- Manually change your account region in the settings to a non-UK country, which can sometimes re-enable sensitive content even without a VPN.
- Use a previously created account that originated outside the UK. X may use account metadata to determine which regional policies to enforce.
- Use incognito mode and clear cookies before logging in from a new region to reduce location fingerprinting.
- Modify browser locale and timezone settings to match a VPN location, though this alone rarely suffices.
- Third-party browser extensions that spoof location data. However, these are less reliable, may trigger security flags, and are not recommended without a VPN.
- Use a proxy server to change your IP and appear outside the UK. Proxies are less secure than VPNs and often fail to bypass X’s detection systems.
- Access X through the Tor browser to hide your identity and location. Tor is slow, unreliable for media-heavy sites, and doesn’t let you choose a specific country.
Is It Legal to Bypass X’s Age Verification?
Bypassing age verification on X depends on how you do it and why. It’s entirely legal to use a VPN in the UK; millions of users rely on them for enhanced privacy and internet freedom. But if you want to use a VPN to access content meant to be restricted under child protection laws, you may be entering a grey area.
UK regulators are focused on platform accountability, not individual users. So the platforms may penalize you if you bypass age checks by suspending accounts or limiting features. From a legal standpoint, you’re not likely to face criminal charges, but you should understand the platform’s terms of service before trying any workaround.
What to know about legal implications:
- VPNs are legal in the UK, and using one to access content isn’t automatically a violation of the law.
- Bypassing age checks can violate X’s terms of service, which may result in account warnings or suspension.
- The UK’s Online Safety Act targets platform compliance, not end users, but it promotes ethical internet use.
- You won’t face prosecution for VPN use, but repeated dodging of age restrictions could flag your account internally.
Wrap Up
Since 25 July 2025, the UK’s Online Safety Act has made age verification a legal requirement for platforms like X, shifting it from a simple checkbox to a mandatory gate. For many adult users, the process feels unnecessarily intrusive.
If you’re over 18 and value your privacy, a trusted VPN with strong encryption and obfuscation, such as PureVPN, can help you regain access to restricted content while maintaining control over your data.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, free VPNs are unreliable and often leak your real IP. Use a trusted VPN like PureVPN for secure, undetectable access.
Not with a premium VPN. PureVPN uses obfuscation to mask VPN traffic, making detection by X nearly impossible.
Yes, updating your account’s country to match your VPN server improves the success rate of bypassing X’s age checks.
Use PureVPN to change your region and avoid using shady extensions or fake ID uploads that can flag your account.
Yes, install PureVPN’s mobile app, connect to a U.S. server, and access X without triggering age checks.
Sometimes, but it’s risky. It’s safer to use PureVPN to change your location without modifying your personal data.
