Overview

• Since July 25, the Online Safety Act has mandated that UK platforms verify user ages through credit cards, ID documents, online banking or AI-based face recognition, with fines up to £18 million and potential blocking by Ofcom for noncompliance.
• Internet users have staged protests against mandatory age-verification banners on sites from gaming portals to video streaming services, citing threats to data privacy and online freedoms.
• Proton VPN saw a 1,400% hourly jump in UK registrations and a sustained 1,800% daily increase as users route traffic around new age checks.
• AI-driven face-recognition systems have misidentified legitimate adults, such as a 45-year-old man whose facial tattoos prevented software from verifying his age.
• EU member states are piloting the open-source EUDI-Wallet app this summer ahead of a planned rollout to unify digital age checks across the European Union.