Ofcom has identified four age assurance methods that it considers “currently capable of being highly effective” at establishing whether a social media user is 16 or older, setting out how platforms could enforce the UK’s planned ban on under-16s.
The regulator carried out the rapid assessment at the request of the Secretary of State. The four methods are photo ID matching, in which information on a document such as a passport is checked against a live image taken during the age check; banking-based checks, which use the age information a financial institution holds on a customer; facial age estimation; and digital ID services, which let people prove who they are or share details such as their age. Services could also offer adults three additional methods identified in Ofcom’s existing guidance.
The ban is due to come into force in March next year and will prevent under-16s from accessing ten of the biggest platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Many adults are also likely to have to confirm that they are not under age using one of the proposed measures, which are subject to government approval. Ofcom said some users with existing accounts may not need to complete an age check if a service already holds accurate and reliable information establishing that they are over the required age.
The onus will be on social network providers to decide how to implement the checks. Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said the regulator was drawing on its experience introducing age checks across the pornography industry. “So what we’ve said all along is 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,” she told the BBC.
Some technology companies, including Meta, have called for age checks to be applied at device level through app stores. Ofcom said that approach would not absolve social network providers from carrying out their own checks.
Ofcom’s report acknowledges that “no age assurance method is completely robust against circumvention by children,” and says services will need to take “practical measures to tackle circumvention by children.” The regulator plans to monitor circumvention, including the use of VPNs, and to publish a report on it within 12 months of the ban taking effect.
The government will now consider the report, with a decision due by the end of the year, and intends to publish its first set of regulations for the ban before the end of 2026. Ofcom is developing draft guidance for social media platforms and will consult on it once the government’s regulations are laid in Parliament.
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
