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Reddit has made an announcement stating that it will be implementing age verification on its UK site starting Monday in order to prevent individuals under the age of 18 from accessing “certain mature content”. This decision comes as a response to new regulations outlined in the UK’s Online Safety Act, which mandate that websites displaying adult material must implement robust age verification techniques. Despite Reddit’s position of not wanting to know the demographics of its audience, the platform acknowledges that confirming the age of users would aid in their safety efforts.
To carry out the age verification process, Reddit has partnered with an external firm called Persona, which will verify the ages of users through either an uploaded selfie or a photo of a government ID, such as a passport, starting from 14 July. Reddit assures users that it will not have access to the photos provided, only storing the verification status and date of birth to simplify future access to restricted content. Persona has committed to not retaining the photos for more than seven days and will not have access to user data on the Reddit platform.
These new regulations in the UK are scheduled to come into effect on 25 July, with Ofcom, the UK regulator, expecting other companies to follow suit or potentially face enforcement measures for non-compliance. While this move is aimed at protecting children from inappropriate online content, concerns have been raised regarding the potential collection and retention of personal or sensitive information, as highlighted by Scott Babwah Brennen, director of the Center on Technology Policy at New York University. Other adult websites such as Pornhub have also confirmed their intent to introduce enhanced age verification processes to align with the upcoming regulations. Failure to adhere to these rules could result in fines of up to £18m or 10% of worldwide revenue for companies, with additional measures such as business disruption actions being possible in severe cases
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