NextDNS launches DNS-based age verification bypass, offering privacy-focused alternative to digital ID checks

08/25/2025 / By Laura Harris

On Aug. 16, NextDNS introduced a beta feature allowing users to bypass age verification requirements without uploading a personal ID amid rising global digital ID regulations.
The feature reroutes DNS requests through proxy servers in regions without ID checks, offering a more focused alternative to VPNs by targeting only specific DNS queries.
Users can enable the feature via their NextDNS account settings, but early feedback shows inconsistent performance, with platforms like Reddit, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube still blocking content.
Originally meant to be background infrastructure, DNS has evolved into a frontline tool in the fight for online privacy, resisting state control and surveillance through encryption and decentralization.
While empowering users to resist censorship, DNS can also be weaponized by state actors or hackers to block, redirect or exploit online activity, turning once “boring” infrastructure into a powerful digital lever.

Privacy-focused Domain Name System (DNS) provider NextDNS launched a new beta feature to help users sidestep age verification requirements without uploading personal identification on Aug. 16, as governments around the world roll out stricter digital ID laws.

NextDNS’s new feature, Bypass Age Verification, intercepts DNS requests and forwards them through proxy servers located in countries that do not require such ID-based checks. Unlike VPNs, which reroute all internet traffic, this DNS-level “geo spoofing” only affects specific DNS queries, making it a more targeted and potentially faster solution.

Users of both free and paid versions can enable the feature by logging into my.nextdns.io, navigating to the Settings tab and toggling on the new Bypass Age Verification (BETA) option. The company said that this action affirms that users are of legal age to access restricted content.

A screenshot of the settings panel shows other advanced toggles like Cache Boost, CNAME Flattening and a separate Web3 (BETA) section with support for decentralized domains like ENS and IPFS. The age bypass feature is clearly marked as experimental.

However, early feedback suggests the feature is still hit-or-miss. Some services, including Reddit and X (formerly Twitter), continue to block access to age-gated content even with the bypass enabled. On YouTube, where age verification now includes account sign-ins and experimental AI-driven age estimation, the feature appears largely ineffective. (Related: South Dakota enacts porn site age verification law.)

This suggests that the bypass may not work on platforms that rely on more sophisticated methods tied to account data, localized billing or browser-level signals.

DNS became the internet’s new frontline in the battle for privacy and control

According to Brighteon.AI‘s Enoch, DNS, originally designed to map domain names to IP addresses, has increasingly become a battleground for censorship, governance and privacy. Governments and ISPs often manipulate DNS by blocking, hijacking or redirecting DNS traffic to suppress access to content, shape online behavior or implement regulatory controls.

To counteract censorship and surveillance, various innovations have emerged. Technologies like DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT) encrypt DNS requests, preventing third parties from snooping on or manipulating domain lookups and projects such as Namecoin, Unstoppable Domains and Handshake use blockchain or distributed models to enable censorship-resistant domain resolution.

Christina Maas wrote in her article for Reclaim the Net that DNS has become a tool of digital rebellion — not just a backbone of the internet, but a frontline of privacy resistance. Through encrypted channels and decentralized systems, users gain new ways to reclaim control and circumvent restrictive policies.

At the same time, DNS remains a powerful weapon, accessible to both state actors and malicious individuals, to enforce censorship, disrupt services or exploit vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure.

“For most of its life, the Domain Name System has been the equivalent of the plumbing behind your toilet: you know it’s there, you know it works, and you only think about it when it breaks. It was designed to be dull. Type “cats.com” and DNS figures out which machine somewhere in Nebraska is actually serving you the endless parade of whiskered memes. The whole thing was meant to be invisible, a background hum of numbers quietly translated into names. But somewhere along the line, a bunch of ordinary users decided the digital plumbing could double as a crowbar,” Maas wrote.

Follow PrivacyWatch.news for more similar stories.

Watch the video below about why internet age verification laws are another nail in the coffin of privacy.

This video is from the unmasked channel on Brighteon.com.