The four ways social media platforms can verify ages for millions of users

Most major social media websites and apps will be covered by the ban (Picture: Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto) Ofcom has revealed the four things you might soon have to do to prove you’re old enough to doomscroll on social media. Child safety campaigners and government officials say that simply ticking a box saying you’re over 18 doesn’t cut it when it comes to age-checks. But children have outsmarted social media bans elsewhere, such as in Australia, by making themselves appear older or using their parents’ ID when making an account. To address this, Ofcom has said in a report published today that there are just four ‘highly-effective’ ways to prove an under-18 teen’s age: Photo ID matching: A two-parter, users upload a government-issued identification card, such as a passport or driving licence. They then enable their laptop or phone to take a photo, which is scanned to see if it matches the photo on the ID. Banking-based checks: Banks essentially tell the platform if the user is over 16, as official ID is needed to open an account. Digital identity services: Systems that allow users to create ‘digital ID’ that can be flashed, similar to ones in place to rent a home. Facial age estimation: Similar to ID matching, this involves software scanning a person’s face to estimate their age. Ofcom’s guidance isn’t law and the government would need to approve it. The government says some adults won’t need to pass through an age gate, as identity checks are called, if they already have an account. But Ofcom stresses that many over-18 users will need to prove their age to keep scrolling, though there will be a few more ways for them to do so: Credit card checks: Clue’s in the name, uploading credit card details which a payment processor checks are valid. Mobile Network Operator checks: All phones accessing the web on pay-as-you-go and contract SIMs have an automatic ‘content restriction filter’, which is removed if the user proves they’re an adult. This is shared with the service the user is trying to access. Email estimation: By handing over an email address, a platform checks if it’s been used for mature things, like mortgage lenders. Ofcom, which regulates media, has suggested various ways to verify a user’s age (Picture: Ofcom) Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, as well as gaming sites, certain AI tools and livestreaming services could all be restricted. Metro has approached some of Britain’s biggest banks to see if they will be assisting social media age-checks if it were to become law. But the burden is on the respective tech companies to enforce the under-18 ban. This could also include, for example, the websites checking how long an account has been active for; whether it interacts with other underage users or if usage times are consistent with school hours. Ofcom boss Dame Melanie Dawes said: ‘This ban will shape the future of children’s lives online, so it’s important to get it right. ‘It can work if social media firms do highly effective age checks properly, and we’ve set out ways that could be achieved.’ Why should everyone over 16 need ID to use social media? There are fewer ways for teens to prove they’re over 18 (Picture: AFP) The issue, Andy Lulham, the chief operating officer at the age-verification tool Verifymy, tells Metro, is that there are less ways to verify a teen’s age. Minors don’t have credit cards or full driving licences, which are the go-to age-checks for most online apps and services. Not all face-scanning technology is 100% accurate, Lulham adds. That creates a trade-off: to keep almost all 15-year-olds out, a number of 16- and 17-year-olds will not pass either,’ he says. ‘The challenge will be for these legitimate users, who will then have to use documents, if they have them.’ This is why Ofcom’s suggestions are ‘tougher’ than Australia’s social media ban methods, which ask tech giants to take ‘reasonable steps’. What do you think about stricter age verification for social media? It's a good idea to protect minors.Check It's too restrictive and won't work.Check I need more information to decide.Check Stay up to date with the stories everybody’s talking about by signing up to Metro's News Updates newsletter. Within a month of the ban going into effect, nearly 5million social media accounts belonging to Australian teenagers were deactivated or removed. Yet experts warn the ban has largely failed at keeping young teens off platforms, with seven in 10 parents saying their children were still on age-restricted services. Teens have, among other things, doodled facial hair to fool age-estimating scans or just made a new account pretending to be an older sibling. ‘A few under-16s will inevitably find a way around the checks, but that should not stop us from making sure most cannot,’ Lulham adds. ‘It might take time, but this should start a cultural shift. ‘Many children get their first smartphone when they start secondary school, and the hope is that they are no longer immediately immersed in the world of social media, where online harms do exist.’ But Big Brother Watch, a digital privacy campaign group, said on X that the social media ban amounts to a ‘back door’ national ID system. ‘Hundreds of thousands of people without ID, who tend to be poorer people, and many more who don’t want to risk handing their passports over to foreign tech companies will be locked out of huge parts of the internet,’ it said. ‘The plan will kill anonymity online, whilst the UK’s culture of speech policing is reaching a crisis point.’ Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. 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