On July 25, the UK's age-verification law goes into effect. This means that sites with explicit content must install age-checks for all users, with the hope that minors don't access the content.
Age-verification has been in the works in the UK for years. Back in 2017, the Digital Economy Bill proposed an age-verification system, which was set to go into effect in 2019 but failed before it was enacted. It was attempted again in 2022. Other forms of "age appropriate design" have been established in the UK in the intervening years, such as the code for privacy protections for children that went into effect in 2021. (As of June this year, that guidance is under review and subject to change.)
Now, age verification is nestled in the 2023 Online Safety Act, a set of laws aimed at protecting people online. Here's what you need to know about it and how it will affect you.
How will age-verification work in the UK?
According to UK communications regulator Ofcom, sites and apps must confirm a visitor's age in one of the following ways as of July 25:
Facial recognition (visitors upload a photo or video, and technology analyzes it to estimate their age)
Banking information
Digital wallets
Credit card age checks
Email-based age estimation (technology analyzes where else the email has been used to estimate age)
Mobile network operator checks (confirming whether a phone number has age filters applied to it)
Photo ID matching
Ofcom states that it will fine up to £18 million or 10 percent of qualifying worldwide revenue (whichever is greater) for sites and apps that don't comply.
Pornhub, which recently blocked itself in France and has blocked itself in multiple U.S. states that enacted age-verification laws, has said it will comply with the UK's law. Pornhub's vice president of brand and community, Alex Kekesi, told Mashable in a statement in June that this is because Ofcom consulted with industry experts and is offering a variety of flexible methods to provide proof of age (listed above).
Several dating apps will also install verification methods to comply with the law, they added.
What are the potential pitfalls of age-verification?
One concern about age verification — that free speech experts told Mashable about the U.S. laws — is online privacy and security. Users will now have to give information to different third-party systems, and may not know how these companies are handling or storing that data.
According to Ofcom, it will work with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which handles data protection in the UK. The regulator says it will refer to the ICO if it has concerns that a provider isn't complying with UK data protection law. Ofcom also has guidance for providers that allow porn, and a guide to implementing age assurance.
Another concern is how easy it is to circumvent these laws. An initial study out of NYU found that age-verification doesn't work because people can use software like VPNs to pretend to be in another location or visit non-compliant sites.
Ofcom's group director for online safety, Oliver Griffiths, told Mashable back in June that age-verification won't be foolproof. "If you have dedicated teenagers who are intent on getting around the checks in the same way as they kind of find their way into pubs and bars to buy alcohol, a number of them will manage to get through it," he said.
Despite concerns, it's clear that age-verification isn't going away. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas' age-verification law, setting a precedent for current and future American state laws requiring age checks.
And in Australia, age-verification is coming for search engines — not just porn sites. At the end of 2025, Australians will have to provide proof of age when logged into their Google or Microsoft accounts, and using these companies' search engines.
That's a third, and perhaps most insidious, concern about age verification: that it will quell not only sexual expression but also general free expression online.
In January, concerning SCOTUS' hearing about Texas's age-verification law, free speech experts told Mashable the stakes of the court's decision. Bad actors can point to information about reproductive rights and LGBTQ people, for example, and label it "pornographic" in order to censor it. And also, as is happening in Australia, internet users might have to verify their age to just look at general content online, not just explicit content.
"There's so much riding on this case," said Ricci Levy, president and CEO of sexual freedom nonprofit, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, back in January of the Supreme Court decision. "It's really the future of the internet…I don't believe it's going to stop here."
