Reddit Rolls Out Age Checks in the UK Ahead of New Safety Law
Reddit has started verifying users' ages in the UK to comply with the country's Online Safety Act, which goes into effect on July 25th. Beginning July 14th, UK users who want to access mature or NSFW content must prove they’re over 18 by submitting a selfie or a photo of their government ID. The process is handled by Persona, a third-party verification company that promises not to keep photos for more than seven days.
This move aims to prevent minors from seeing content like explicit material, graphic violence, or posts that romanticize depression. While Reddit stresses it doesn’t want personal details and won’t access the uploaded photos, many users are concerned about digital privacy. “Reddit was built on the principle that you shouldn’t need to share personal information to participate in meaningful discussions,” the platform said. Critics, however, warn that these checks could set a troubling precedent. “UK users can no longer use the internet without having to provide their papers, as it were,” said David Greene from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, said it expects other platforms to follow Reddit’s lead or face heavy fines. While Reddit is starting with the UK, it hinted at expanding age checks globally and mentioned future tools to confirm if users are human or bots. For now, anyone under 18 in the UK will find themselves locked out of a large chunk of Reddit without a valid ID.
