The UK's online safety regime is beginning to reshape how digital services verify users' ages, with Ofcom reporting a significant increase in the deployment of age assurance measures across pornography, social media, dating and gaming platforms. However, despite what Ofcom describes as unprecedented progress, its much anticipated report on age assurance makes clear that substantial gaps remain and that further action will be required if age assurance is to underpin the UK government's planned restrictions on under-16s' use of social media.
Implementation of age assurance measures
Under the Online Safety Act, providers of certain online services are required to use highly effective age assurance measures to protect children from harmful content. Ofcom's report suggests that implementation is gathering pace. The proportion of children who encountered highly effective age checks when asked to verify their age increased from 25% to 43% between July 2025 and January 2026. Across a sample of 32 online services, more than 69 million age checks were completed during the second half of 2025, representing a 23-fold increase compared with the previous six months.
Perhaps the most visible impact has been on the online pornography sector. Ofcom reports that all the UK's ten most popular pornography sites, and a majority of the top 100 sites, now have age checks in place. The regulator's research suggests that these measures are acting as an effective deterrent for children seeking to access adult content. Among the 8% of children in Ofcom's study who attempted to access pornography services, half only reached sites where age checks were present, while visits were often extremely brief, indicating that users were being prevented from proceeding further.
Problems remain
However, Ofcom is far from satisfied that the system is working effectively across the board. The regulator identifies several areas where protections remain inadequate. Some pornography services continue to operate without age checks and, in some cases, have experienced increases in traffic after competitors introduced age assurance measures. Ofcom has opened 23 investigations into providers of 88 adult services and has imposed a series of fines on non-compliant operators.
Ofcom is also concerned about how easily children can discover non-compliant sites. Its analysis found that a significant proportion of first-page search results on search websites directed users to pornography websites that lacked age checks or equivalent protections. As a result, Ofcom says it is working with the major search engines to identify practical solutions to reduce the visibility of such sites and limit children's ability to access them through search results.
Ofcom's is increasingly sceptical about age inference technology. Rather than directly verifying a user's age, age inference systems analyse behaviour and activity patterns to estimate whether someone is a child or an adult. Some major platforms have relied heavily on these tools to identify younger users. However, Ofcom says the evidence reinforces its "serious doubts" about the effectiveness of some age inference models and warns that they may fail to identify significant numbers of children, potentially exposing them to harmful content.
Investigation launched
Alongside publication of the report, Ofcom announced a formal investigation into a platform's compliance with its child safety duties under the Online Safety Act. It will assess if the platform's approach to age assurance is sufficiently effective in preventing children from encountering harmful content. While the investigation does not imply that any breach has occurred, it sends a clear signal that Ofcom expects platforms to be able to demonstrate, with robust evidence, that their chosen methods meet the statutory standard of being "highly effective".
The report is particularly significant given the Government's plans to introduce restrictions on social media use by under-16s. Ofcom argues that current age inference systems are unlikely to be capable of supporting a meaningful social media ban at the point of entry. Instead, the regulator suggests that stronger forms of age assurance will be required if platforms are to verify reliably whether a user is over or under 16. To support future policy decisions, Ofcom says that it will provide Parliament with a rapid assessment by October 2026 of what constitutes highly effective age verification for determining whether a user is over 16.
A notable feature of the report is its recognition that responsibility for age assurance extends beyond individual platforms. Ofcom advocates a broader, "whole-of-system" approach involving app stores, operating systems and device manufacturers. The regulator points to industry developments, including steps already taken by Apple, and says further innovation is needed to strengthen protections and reduce reliance on any single point of failure. It has also committed to publishing a dedicated report on the role of app-store level protections by January 2027.
The way forward
Ofcom has made clear that deploying age checks is no longer optional, and relying solely on behavioural age inference is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. As the UK moves towards further restrictions on children's access to online services, businesses should expect increased regulatory attention and take steps to ensure the effectiveness of their age assurance measures as well as creating, implementing and updating strong governance policies and processes as the compliance landscape evolves.
