Competition with a shortlist
Competitive procedure with a selection stage: suppliers were shortlisted before being invited to bid.
Key facts
- Buyer
- Dsit
- Supplier
- BMG Research Limited SME
- Value
- £49,500
- Procedure
- Call-off from a dynamic purchasing system
- Sector
- Research & development · Research and development services and related consultancy services (CPV 73000000)
- Region
- North West
- Official notice
- View on Contracts Finder
- Timeline
-
- Contract date27 Feb 2026
- Published19 Mar 2026Published 20 days after the contract date
Description
In July 2025 the Online Safety Act's Child Safety Duties came into force, requiring online services to implement highly effective age assurance measures to prevent children from accessing harmful or age-inappropriate content. These duties were a major milestone in the government's approach to improving children's online safety. Following implementation, Ofcom reported that UK daily active users of virtual private networks (VPN) apps temporarily doubled to around 1.5 million. Emerging research suggests that this spike in VPN usage was not primarily driven by child users. We are interested in exploring this further. Findings will inform government understanding, help shape future interventions and ensure the Act delivers its intended protections for children. To inform government understanding, we want to explore the impact of circumvention techniques and VPNs further. To better understand the prevalence and methods of age assurance circumvention among children, including the use of VPN…
About the supplier
BMG Research Limited: every public contract they have won, plus their Companies House record (company 02841970).