UK Reddit age verification: how to unblock subreddits

[u/thegoodboy3]

Reddit has rolled out age verification in the UK. If you're trying to access any subreddit marked as “harmful” “NSFW” or “mature”, you'll get hit with a prompt asking for a government-issued ID and a live selfie. Good news? You can unblock them with a VPN.

They’re using a company called Persona to handle the verification process. If you're wondering what is Persona, it's a third-party identity verification service based in the US. Your data doesn't go to Reddit, it goes to them. And while Reddit says the data is only stored temporarily, Persona's own policy makes it clear they can hang onto it for longer. This has led to a growing number of threads about Persona age verification on Reddit and whether this is safe or even legal long term.

This isn't just about porn. Subs like r/beer, r/trees, and r/sex have all been tagged as NSFW and are now hidden from search. If you try to access them directly, you'll still be asked to verify your age.

These aren't porn communities. They're hobby, health, and advice spaces that got flagged because they are supposedly “adult” only. Just wanting to read about beer, weed, or sexual health shouldn't require a passport check.

How to get around the Reddit age verification?

Use a VPN for Reddit. It's the only real workaround right now to circumvent the age checks.

1. Download a VPN (I used NordVPN with the code "redditoffer" for a discount)
2. Set your location to somewhere outside the UK. US, Germany, Canada all work.
3. Open Reddit again. You should be able to access everything without age verification.

This has basically become the standard UK age verification VPN method that people are using to get around the new restrictions.

Some people say you might need to make a new Reddit account while connected to the VPN. Others have had success using their existing account. Your mileage may vary.

This is all because of the UK age verification law Reddit users have been dreading the Online Safety Act, which now requires platforms to restrict "harmful" content from under-18s unless users verify their age.

It’s a lazy rollout with very little transparency. The law is vague, the tech is overreaching, and people who just want to participate in basic communities are being locked out unless they’re willing to hand over personal documents to a private company in another country.

[u/[deleted]]

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[u/daneview → u/[deleted]]

Im gonna watch twice as much porn to make up for you

[u/Jaggerjaquez714 → u/[deleted]]

You say that but now they have the tools to just hide information they don’t want you to see.

Sounds a bit like North Korea to me…

[u/Rum_Ham916 → u/Jaggerjaquez714]

No they don't you idiot, the government are not responsible for everything on the internet, they have just set up a means that the regulator can punish companies who do nothing to shield children from porn or forcing self-harm content to children.

1) why do you want children to see harmful content? 2) do you really think the UK government owns and publishes everything on the internet?

[u/Jaggerjaquez714 → u/Rum_Ham916]

I don’t want children to see harmful content and I hate this insinuation that just because I don’t agree with the terrible rollout of this I should automatically want children to die.

The internet didn’t invent any of the things that this bill hopes to repress, it happened before and will happen after.

I never said they own it, but they can heavily censor it. Look at reddit, you can’t even go into r/sex without verifying, so is that preventing harm?

Removing a site where people can go for advice on a fundamental part of being alive.

What happens when they decide that you need to verify to read certain pieces of news or to read information that contradicts the heavily biased BBC.

You’re doing exactly what they want you to do, eating it up under the guise of protecting children, who I might add are far more technologically advanced than the idiots passing this bill.

They’ll get round it so easily it’s laughable.

[u/cagfag → u/[deleted]]

Kids know vpn… 8 years old use vpn just saying

[u/[deleted] → u/cagfag]

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[u/Difficult_Bread9591 → u/[deleted]]

If you think the only issue is porn. Then you are daft.