Ofcom has named four age checks it says can reliably tell whether UK social media users are 16 or over. They will underpin the UK social media ban for under-16s due next year, and many adults will have to pass them too.
The regulator published its assessment on Thursday. The ban is due to start in March. It will cover ten of the biggest platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, Zoe Kleinman reported for the BBC. The government will decide which checks to require by the end of the year. It announced the ban on under-16s in June.
Four checks, all built on ID
Photo ID matching compares a document such as a passport with a live image taken during the check. Bank checks use the age a bank holds on record. About 90% of UK 16 and 17-year-olds have a bank account, Ofcom estimates, The Register reported.
Digital ID services verify a person once, then confirm their age to other services. Facial age estimation has a margin of error of a few years. Ofcom suggests platforms back it up with a second method.
Three checks that work for adults did not make the list: credit cards, mobile network checks and email-based checks. Each one only proves a user is 18. Ofcom also judged self-declaration, contract terms and parental consent ineffective, TechRadar reported.
All four methods need some form of photo ID. Ofcom estimates that about 94% of 16 and 17-year-olds have one, such as a passport or a driving licence. Those without one would need to get one.
Platforms choose, adults verify
Ofcom will not prescribe a single method. Chief executive Melanie Dawes told the BBC that countries which set strict rules for porn sites found they did not work.
“Here are things that can work, they must preserve privacy, they must protect people’s data, but it’s on you to put in place what you think works for you,” Dawes told the BBC.
Platforms may infer some adults’ ages from their past activity. But Ofcom said “many” adults will have to verify, according to The Register. The regulator told the BBC it has no firm figure, but expects a “large number of accounts”.
Meta told the BBC it wants checks done once on the phone, through the app stores run by Apple and Google. Users would then not have to prove their age on every platform. Ofcom said that would not free the platforms from running their own checks.
Workarounds expected
Ofcom accepts that some children will get round the checks. It plans easier reporting of suspected underage users, age inference models, and 12 months of monitoring once the ban starts, The Register reported. Australia’s ban, in force since December 2025, failed early age checks in testing.
“This ban will shape the future of children’s lives online, so it’s important to get it right,” Dawes said in a statement.
Privacy groups object
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, called the plan “a national ID system by the back door”, according to The Register.
“The plan will kill anonymity online,” Carlo said.
Pieter Arntz of Malwarebytes told TechRadar that photo ID matching creates “another attractive target for criminals”. He pointed to a breach at a Discord support provider that exposed about 70,000 ID images.
Child safety groups welcomed the guidance, the BBC reported. The NSPCC said tech firms must be held to the standards. Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said Ofcom had a “dire track record” of enforcing the Online Safety Act.
Other European countries are moving the same way. Greece passed its under-15 ban last week, and the EU has its own age verification app.