A new U.K. law requiring pornography websites to verify the age of their users took effect on Friday. According to reports, around 6,000 porn sites have stated they will begin age verification to comply with the Online Safety Act. However, at least one major site was not enforcing age checks as of Friday morning.
The law also mandates that online platforms prevent children from accessing harmful content. As a result, sites like Reddit, Bluesky, X, and Grindr have started asking U.K. users to verify their age through methods such as selfies or government-issued IDs.
This is part of a broader trend of new child protection laws that could lead to widespread online age verification globally. Critics, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argue that such measures threaten online privacy and anonymity. Concerns were highlighted by a recent data breach involving the dating safety app Tea, where many of the exposed files included selfies and digital IDs submitted for verification.
Some internet users may attempt to bypass age checks by using fake IDs, selfies of video game characters, or VPNs.