UK’s Online Safety Act already requires it

The UK’s Online Safety Act was passed in 2023, and even though it was heavily criticized by privacy groups and legal experts, the regulations introduced with it are slowly changing the online landscape in the UK. The Act has made headlines recently in the news as the deadline for certain websites to implement stricter age verification was on July 25, 2025.

The Kids Online Safety Act places a duty of care on tech companies to protect children from inappropriate material, hate speech, bullying, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and fraud. Services like social media, websites, search engines, online forums, and dating services are now required to implement stricter forms of age verification systems. Even if the service is located abroad, it needs to comply with the law if it has a large number of UK users or if the UK is a target market.

Now, users in the UK can no longer simply click the box to confirm they are over the age of 18 for a quick age check. To access websites or services with restricted content, users will have to prove their age through different methods, for example, facial recognition, uploading their IDs, or by credit card verification. If sites don’t comply with these new age checking regulations, they may be fined up to 18 million pounds or 10% of their worldwide revenue.

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What content requires age verification online

The kinds of content that require age verification vary based on the laws of the country or region. This means that the verification methods and the types of content that do or don’t require users to verify their age are dependent on jurisdiction. But because age verification laws are being introduced globally with the common aim to reduce how much harmful and explicit content underage users can access online, some common types of content, for example porn, fall in the category that requires age verification.

Some examples of the content requiring age checks, under UK’s Online Safety Act include:

• Platforms (websites, apps, and social media) that show explicit content like porn, for example, PornHub.

• Platforms with content that promotes, encourages, or gives instructions for self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders.

For example, Meta has already introduced Meta Teens Accounts that have a multilayered approach to checking a user’s age and are intended to protect teens from online threats and harmful content.

Will age verification work?

The UK is not the only country implementing age verification. For example, Australia has now banned teenagers under the age of 16 from using social media platforms, the EU recently released a strategy blue print for age verification that could lead to similar legislation, and in the US, different states have also implemented age verification. In most cases, age verification does come with the good intention of protecting children, but it also comes with a huge problem: When people need to register to use certain websites, this gives companies and governments a lot of power over citizens, leading to mass surveillance and loss of privacy.

Plus, age verification might not even work the way it is intended: With age verification, legislators want to make it impossible for people under age to access age-restricted content. But this does not mean it will stop young people from accessing explicit materials, forums, or dating sites completely. For example, virtual private networks (VPNs) are an easy solution to access sites from a different geographic location and avoid giving up your identity to verify your age. And in the UK, VPN usage has greatly increased.

With the recent introduction of stricter age verification in the UK, people have shared their concerns, opinions, and how the verification doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. Image: Reddit

For example, the BBC reported that VPN apps were the most downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store in July in the UK, after popular sites like X, Reddit, and PornHub implemented age verification checks. In response to this, Dame Rachel de Souza told the BBC Newsnight that VPNs are, “absolutely a loophole that needs closing” and also called for age verification methods on VPNs. The BBC later noted that a government spokesperson said VPNs are legal tools for adult use and there were no plans to ban them.

With easy ways to bypass age verification checks, for example by using VPN services, it’s worth questioning if age verification can actually protect children, or if forcing all individuals to verify their age does not help at all, but only causes harm by killing anonymity and introducing privacy risks.

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What we do know

Huge privacy risks

If sites are required to collect sensitive data of internet users by screening their faces or collecting their IDs, users are required to trust that their personal data is securely stored and not used for surveillance. But there’s no guarantee for that. Big Tech and other companies have demonstrated time and time again that they are more than happy to collect as much data about their users as possible to create profiles of them and post targeted ads. In addition, the young history of the internet has had loads of cases when online services suffered data breaches or secret services like the NSA requested citizens’ data – even without a warrant.

It kills anonymity

While anonymity and privacy are not the same, they are closely interlinked. Privacy is a human right and is guaranteed to everyone in a democracy, also because it is the basis for freedom of thought and freedom of speech – the foundation of a functioning democracy. Oftentimes, anonymity is seen as a crucial part to achieve privacy and to protect one’s identity from being exposed and put at risk, which is particularly important for human rights activists, political opponents in oppressive systems, whistleblowers, and journalists.

The internet should be a place to search the web and be anonymous, particularly for these vulnerable groups, but implementing age verifications like we’ve seen in the UK removes anonymity. Because internet users know they need to verify their age, which in most cases leads to their whole identity being disclosed, it will lead to people being afraid to search the web freely. For example, if the user is queer and lives in a country where being queer is illegal, they may firstly be too scared to find communities and forums relating to LGBTQ online, and even worse, could face censorship from their government.

What becomes clear is that the increased trend of countries to implement strict age verification laws will create an internet that’s less private and less free.

A worried Reddit user shares how they feel “powerless” about the “age verification era”. Image: Reddit.

It’s not a fair approach

If the age verification requires ID checks, it will restrict and limit those who do not have government issued IDs. Advocates for age verification often respond that if users do not have IDs, there are still other verification methods easily available to use, for example, using AI to estimate one’s age after uploading a photo or checking financial or internet histories. However, all of these checks are highly invasive and are not always accurate. For example, software to estimate age is often inaccurate for women and minority groups. Plus, it’s not a given that website owners will enable different forms of age verification or possibly only give the option to verify ones age through ID checks.

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No perfect solution

Governments around the world are right in wanting to protect children from harmful content, but age verification is not the perfect solution: Age verification fails to do what it’s supposed to achieve – protect children – and at the same time, it destroys the free and open nature of the internet.

What becomes evident from the heated discussion about age verification is that a solution that ends online privacy for everyone is no solution at all.