Bluesky and Reddit are set to introduce age verification for UK users attempting to access explicit content on the platforms, in order to comply with the country’s new online safety rules.
The sites independently announced that users will be able to verify that they are aged 18 or over by scanning their face, uploading ID, or entering information about a payment card. Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, sites and platforms that allow porn to be shared need to implement “highly effective” and “robust” age verification processes by July 25, 2025.
The new UK rules have placed dedicated porn sites under increased scrutiny, with Aylo, the company behind Pornhub, recently announcing that it will bring in new age verification measures to comply. Social media platforms that allow the sharing of porn will fall under the remit of the rules, but Bluesky is the first major one to announce that it will toughen processes, followed closely by the news from Reddit.
X also allows porn to be shared on its platforms, and has not commented on the new UK rules or announced any age verification changes. Many major social media sites, such as Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, don’t allow porn or nudity at all, and thus will presumably not intend to comply with these laws.
Bluesky Age Verification
Bluesky will use Kid Web Services (KWS), an age verification tool owned by Epic Games. A notification will appear on the platform for UK-based users when the update kicks in.
If a user can’t verify that they are aged 18 or over in this way, or don’t want to, Bluesky says that “adult-appropriate content” will be inaccessible to them, and some features including direct messaging will be disabled for them.
Bluesky said: “In addition to these updates, we’ll continue to look at how we’re doing to shield children from unwanted content, and how we can improve.”
The UK toughening its age verification laws has raised concerns about data protection and privacy.
Reacting to Bluesky’s announcement, Mike Stabile, policy director at the Free Speech Coalition, said: “I realize that platforms feel they have no choice but to comply with the government surveillance schemes, but shocking nonetheless.”
He added: “The AV [age verification] mandate in the UK and its ‘duty of care’ provisions were advanced in a porn panic, but the requirements wall off large parts of the internet, including most social media sites.”
Reddit Age Verification
Reddit will use third-party service Persona to verify users’ ages, requiring them to submit either a selfie or a photograph of their government-issued identification documents, though Reddit says it will not have access to these images and will only save the person’s verification status and their date of birth. Persona will only retain the photos for seven days in what’s described as a one-time verification process.
Restricted content to be hidden from users under 18 includes sexually explicit posts, anything that encourages suicide and disordered eating, and posts that spread hate against other people based on their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and gender, among other violent and harmful content.
Reddit’s chief legal officer Ben Lee detailed the move, explaining that the platform is also introducing an optional feature for users in all regions to provide their birthdate to “optimize your Reddit experience” by tailoring content and advertisements based on age, while also noting that Reddit “would like to be able to confirm whether [users] are a human being or not” in the age of AI, with more announcements to come on that front at a later date.
While the intention of preventing people under the age of 18 from explicit sexual content is laudable, the announcement has sparked concerns among UK users about data protection, particularly given that Persona is a US-based company, with some users questioning whether the arrangement complies with UK GDPR legislation and critics pointing to Persona’s privacy policy which they claim allows biometric data to be retained for up to three years and shared with third parties.
And what about X/Twitter?
X, which launched as Twitter in 2006, only ‘officially’ acknowledged that it allowed porn on its platform in 2024, when it announced a new content flagging rule. Porn on X must be hidden by a content warning that needs to be clicked through to access the explicit content. Users who regularly post porn and adult content must apply a content warning click-through to their entire profile.
The UK’s new age verification rules are being enforced by Ofcom, the country’s communications regulatory body. Sites and platforms that don’t comply face fines of up to ten percent of their company’s worldwide revenue, or £18 million ($24 million), whichever is the greater figure.
Ofcom recently launched an investigation into a group of niche porn sites, which it suspects of not complying with age verification rules.
In 2023 Reddit announced that it would allow AI porn on its platform, as long as it only features fictional people or those who have consented to their depiction in it.
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