UK orders tech firms to implement age assurance checks: kids can’t just click “I’m 13” anymore
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is calling on social media and video-sharing platforms to do more to prevent children from using their services.
Boy lies on a sofa and looks at his smartphone. Annette Riedl/picture alliance/Getty
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is calling on social media and video-sharing platforms to do more to prevent children from using their services.
“With growing concerns about the risks to children even older than 13 accessing services like yours, now is the time to act. You should be making full use of the current viable technologies to prevent under-13s, who you already recognize are too young to be on your services, from gaining access,” the UK’s privacy and data protection authority said in an open letter.
Relying on users to self-declare their age isn’t the way to go, the ICO states. Instead, social media platforms and video-sharing services should use the age verification technology currently available.
“If your service is not suitable for children under a minimum age set out in your terms of service, you should therefore prevent access to children under your minimum age by implementing an effective age gate,” the British regulator tells companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and X.
Protecting underage teenagers from potentially harmful content is part of the Online Safety Act, which went into effect in July 2025. The legislation requires website owners and app developers to implement age verification systems and controls to verify users' ages.
Platforms that refuse to comply face penalties of up to £18 million, or 10% of their annual global turnover, whichever is greater.
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“With ever-growing public concern, the status quo is not working, and industry must do more to protect children. You should act now to identify and implement current viable technologies to prevent children under your minimum age from accessing your service. We expect industry to take urgent steps to meet this call to action, and we will be monitoring practices to decide whether further regulatory action is necessary,” the ICO concluded.
Melanie Dawes, CEO of British media regulator Ofcom, feels that big tech companies are failing to properly protect children from harmful content.
“There is a gap between what tech companies promise in private and what they’re doing publicly to keep children safe on their platforms. Without the right protections, like effective age checks, children have been routinely exposed to risks they didn’t choose, on services they can’t realistically avoid. That must now change quickly, or Ofcom will act,” she said in a statement.
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A Meta spokesperson told news agency Reuters that the company is already using AI-based age detection and age-estimation tools and places teens in accounts with built-in protections.
A YouTube spokesperson said he was “surprised to see Ofcom move away from a risk-based approach.”
Instead, the regulator should focus on “high-risk services” that are falling short.
A Roblox spokesperson said the company had launched more than 140 new safety features in the past year, including mandatory age checks for chat, designed to prevent adults from communicating with children.
In February 2026, the ICO fined Reddit £14.5 million for failing to implement age-assurance measures and for processing children’s personal information unlawfully in a way that potentially exposed them to inappropriate, harmful content.
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