Japan Studies Social Media Age Verification and Platform Risk Labels

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has asked an expert advisory panel to examine whether social media platforms should be subject to age restrictions, mandatory risk disclosures, and age verification requirements. Draft proposals were presented at a panel meeting yesterday.

The ministry is considering three broad categories of measures. The first would require social media operators to apply age-based content filtering functions by default, with the applicable age threshold to be set at a later date. The second would require platforms to assess addiction risks associated with their services and publicly disclose those assessments alongside the restriction methods available to users. The third would explore an age verification framework linked to telecommunications carriers or device operating system providers that verify identity at the point of mobile handset purchase, using existing infrastructure from the device provisioning process.

Platforms named in reporting include Instagram, TikTok, and X. The MIC expressed caution about imposing uniform age limits across all platforms, contrasting its approach with that of other countries on the basis that risks differ by service type. The ministry plans to compile a report within April 2026, with potential legal regulation possible as early as 2027.

Japan has been expanding the mobile identity capabilities that could underpin a telco- or OS-linked age verification framework. Japan’s Android My Number Card wallet expansion, announced two weeks prior, represents the kind of device-level identity infrastructure the panel is considering as a platform for age assurance. The My Number Card IC chip opened to private sector apps, with Toshiba named as the first implementer in March 2026, is a further step toward the device-level identity verification framework the MIC panel is now studying.

Japan’s deliberations follow a global wave of legislative action on children’s online safety. Australia’s under-16 social media ban, which became effective in November 2024, is a key comparator in the MIC’s own framing of its approach. Australia’s biometric age verification trials in early 2025 showed the implementation complexity that Japan is now studying as it considers a carrier-linked model. Similar proposals are under consideration in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Korea.

Sources: Nippon.com, Bloomberg, Business Standard

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team