Work out which age-assurance rules apply to you
In the space of two years, age-assurance law went from a niche concern to a duty that reaches most consumer websites and apps. The UK, the EU, Australia and more than twenty US states now require some form of age checking, and the rules differ sharply by where your users are and what your service does. This free checker asks four short questions and maps your answers to the duties that most likely apply, so you know where to look before you talk to a lawyer.
The four questions
- Where are your users? UK, EU/EEA, United States, Australia or the rest of the world. Each region has its own regime.
- What is your service? Adult content, a social/UGC feed, a video-sharing platform, a general site, an age-restricted goods seller or gambling.
- Do under-18s use it? Adults only, likely accessed by children, or aimed at children.
- Do you collect children's data? Which triggers children's-privacy duties on top of any content rules.
The regimes it maps
- UK — Online Safety Act (Ofcom): services that publish or allow pornography must use 'highly effective age assurance' from 25 July 2025, and services likely to be accessed by children face broader child-safety duties. Penalties reach £18 million or 10% of worldwide revenue.
- EU — Digital Services Act, Article 28: platforms accessible to minors must ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security. The Commission's July 2025 guidelines and a privacy-preserving age-verification blueprint push toward proportionate age assurance, and full verification for adult content.
- US — COPPA and state laws: COPPA requires verifiable parental consent to collect data from under-13s (amended rule effective June 2025, full compliance by April 2026). State adult-content age-verification laws were upheld by the Supreme Court in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton (2025), while several state social-media laws remain blocked in court.
- Australia — social media minimum age: from 10 December 2025, age-restricted social platforms must take reasonable steps to keep under-16s off the service, with penalties up to A$49.5 million.
Levels of age assurance
Not every duty demands the same rigour. The checker labels each with the level expected: self-declaration (rarely enough on its own), proportionate age assurance or estimation, verifiable parental consent for under-13s, 'reasonable steps' for Australia's under-16 rule, and full age verification for adult content. Knowing the required level tells you whether a checkbox will do or whether you need ID or credit-card checks.
Important: this is not legal advice
Age-assurance law is moving quickly and is heavily litigated, especially in the United States, where several laws are currently enjoined. This tool is a general orientation aid based on a reading of the major regimes as of mid-2026. It may be incomplete or out of date, it does not cover every jurisdiction or edge case, and it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Treat its output as a starting list of things to verify with the named regulator or a qualified lawyer, not as a compliance determination.