Let me see some ID: age verification is spreading across the internet
TL;DR
Age verification requiring ID or facial scans is spreading across internet platforms like YouTube and Roblox, driven by child safety laws despite privacy concerns. Discord delayed its global rollout after backlash, while AI models and new legislation push forward verification efforts.
Key Takeaways
- •Age verification through ID or facial scans is expanding on platforms like YouTube, Roblox, and Discord to enhance child safety online.
- •Privacy and security concerns persist, highlighted by Discord's delayed global rollout after user backlash and a vendor data breach.
- •Legislation such as the App Store Accountability Act and state laws in Utah are driving mandatory age verification requirements.
- •AI technologies from companies like Google and ChatGPT are being deployed to detect and restrict underage users automatically.
- •The trend reflects a broader shift toward a 'gated internet' with ongoing debates over censorship, privacy laws, and implementation challenges.
Age verification is a reality on a growing number of social media platforms, requiring an ID or facial scan for full access to everything from YouTube to Roblox. The age-gating wave is coming along with calls for stronger child safety measures online, despite concerns about privacy, security, and censorship.
In the US, lawmakers are pushing forward bills like the App Store Accountability Act and Parents Over Platforms Act to have app stores themselves verify users’ ages.
Discord has delayed plans to roll out age verification globally after user backlash until later in 2026, but it hasn’t completely shelved them, even after a breach of a former vendor last year that leaked some users’ scanned IDs. Meanwhile, other platforms, like ChatGPT and Google, are applying AI models to identify and lock down accounts suspected of being underage until some form of identity verification can prove the user is an adult.
Follow along below for the latest updates on age verification for internet services and apps…
- Apple’s new age verification tools block underage app downloads where required by law
- Discord is delaying its global age verification rollout
- Discord distances itself from Persona age verification after user backlash
- America desperately needs new privacy laws
- Discord says ‘vast majority’ of users won’t see its new age verification setup
- Discord’s age verification mandate is a leap toward a gated internet
- Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month
- ChatGPT is using age prediction to restrict what minors see
- Will you have to show your ID at the app store?
- Roblox now requires an age check if you want to chat
- Meet the new tech laws of 2026
- Judge blocks Texas app store age verification law
- Australia boots kids under 16 off social media: how platforms are responding
- Welcome to the ‘papers, please’ internet
- Here’s how Apple is locking down iPhones to comply with Texas’ age verification law
- Bluesky brings age verification to South Dakota and Wyoming
- Mastodon can’t comply with Mississippi’s age verification laws.
- Steam users in the UK will need a credit card to access ‘mature content’ games
- Bluesky blocks Mississippi under new age verification law
- Supreme Court opens door to social media age-gating in US
- Google is using AI age checks to lock down user accounts
- Ready or not, age verification is rolling out across the internet
- Microsoft starts rolling out Xbox age verification in the UK
- Reddit and Discord’s UK age verification can be defeated by Death Stranding’s photo mode
- Roblox will require a facial scan or government ID to have unfiltered chats
- The EU is testing a prototype age verification app
- Reddit is rolling out age verification in the UK
- Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK
- Google has open sourced its privacy-focused age verification technology.
- The Supreme Court just upended internet law, and I have questions
- The EU age verification app will launch in July.
- Apple is hitting back in the war over internet age-gating
- Utah governor signs the first app store age verification bill into law.
- Utah becomes the first state to pass an app store age verification bill
- How Meta’s global head of safety approaches online age verification
- Child safety bills are reshaping the internet for everyone
- Online age verification is coming, and privacy is on the chopping block
- Instagram is testing an AI tool that verifies your age by scanning your face