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On July 25, the UK became one of the first countries to implement age verification on a large scale. The Internet Safety Act requires sites that host pornography and other content deemed “harmful” – including Reddit, Discord, Grindr, X, and Bluesky – to verify that users are over 18 years old. The early results were messy. While many services complied, some withdrew from the country rather than face the risks and expenses. Users have cheated or bypassed verification tools using VPNs. It’s just a snapshot of the problems many other countries may face when launching their own systems, a situation that privacy and security experts have long warned about — to no avail.
After a years-long political campaign to make the internet safer for children, age verification has begun to seep into online spaces around the world. Lawmakers in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere have passed age restrictions, and platforms are starting to adhere to them. Possible methods of verification are similar to those in the UK. Platforms typically require users to either enter a payment card, upload a government-issued ID, take a selfie, or allow the platform to use their data (such as account creation dates and user communications) to “estimate” their age. Most of them rely on third-party services: Bluesky Uses children’s web services owned by Epic Games; Reddit works with Persona; And disagreement Partnered with k-ID.