Publications
AVPA response to UK government consultation on Social Media
The Age Verification Providers Association has submitted a response to the government's national consultation, 'Growing Up in the Online World', which will inform legislation expected to set new requirements for social media platforms, AI chatbots and other online...
Pornhub’s access for Apple users in the UK does not clearly achieve compliance
The announcement that Pornhub has reopened access to UK iPhone users following Apple’s iOS 26.4 update has been greeted in some quarters as a breakthrough moment for device-based age assurance. It is not. What has occurred is the emergence of a partial ecosystem-level...
Response to Internet Matters report
Internet Matters published quantitative and qualitative research titled "The Online Safety Act: Are children safer online?" which provides valuable evidence about how age assurance is working in practice for families. At a glance, it may give the impression that...
AVPA writes to UK Competition & Markets Authority
The AVPA, the global trade association representing 35 providers of age assurance technology, has written to the UK Competition & Markets Authority, concerned by government plans documented in its consultation on digital ID to move into the private sector market,...
The “Parents Over Platforms Act” Has Gotten Its Name Backwards
The Parents Over Platforms Act was named backwards. It claims to put parents in control. The irony is that the platforms this proposed US Federal bill targets need do almost nothing new to comply with it, leaving parents no better off than today — while the Big Tech...
The EU is offering a free government key to access the Internet
The European Union's age verification 'app' (aka 'blueprint') is beginning to attract attention, and with that scrutiny has come a degree of confusion about what it is, what it does and how it fits into the wider age assurance ecosystem. It is worth setting out the...
AI needs more than Age Inference to protect kids
AI needs more than Age Inference to protect kids. Every major AI assistant available to the public today primarily relies on inference and self-attestation to assess whether a user might be a minor (and this is also the initial strategy being adopted by most social...
AUSTRALIA: Lessons Learned from the implementation of the Social Media Minimum Age Act
The Age Verification Providers Association has produced a report, based on discussions with its members, examining the key lessons learned from the large-scale implementation of “Reasonable Steps” to prevent users under 16 from having social media accounts in...
AUSTRALIA: The problem is not age assurance technology – it is that social media platforms are not doing enough checks
Melbourne 22 April 2026 – The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), the global trade body for providers of age assurance technology, has today published a new report on the early implementation of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age regime, concluding that...
AVPA speaks to LBC’s Tom Swarbrick about Digital ID
We spoke to Tom Swarbrick of LBC about the UK government's proposals for digital ID. Tom Swarbrick: I’m at a loss to understand what this is for, this digital ID. What is it designed to do? In effect, what this will turn into is an app that links you to various bits...
AVPA’s response to CDT, EPIC and Fairplay’s letter to the FTC about COPPA
A recent letter to the Federal Trade Commission from Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Fairplay raises a number of concerns about its COPPA Enforcement Policy Statement on age assurance. It is a thoughtful...