by Rebecca Burgess | Jul 9, 2026
It should not be, and the distinction is worth drawing sharply. Age inference is strongest and least intrusive when it rests on verifiable facts already established for another legitimate purpose: an account that holds a mortgage, a payment instrument that requires...
by Rebecca Burgess | Jul 9, 2026
Most regulations require a degree of age assurance proportionate to the risk. A tick box or date of birth field is not age assurance: Ofcom’s guidance says expressly that self-declaration alone does not count, and that a highly effective process must be...
by Rebecca Burgess | Jul 9, 2026
Some older teenagers will try, just as some use fake IDs in shops, and no one concludes from fake IDs that shops should stop checking. Determined circumvention takes deliberate effort, and that effort is the point. Age checks are most protective against the vast...
by Rebecca Burgess | Jul 9, 2026
No, and the claim deserves a precise answer because it is now common in litigation and lobbying. The trial findings above still stand and has not been retracted. Since the law took effect in December 2025, millions of underage accounts have been removed. Where...
by Rebecca Burgess | Jul 9, 2026
The evidence says yes, at scale. Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial, the largest independent evaluation yet conducted, tested solutions from 48 providers and concluded that age assurance can be done privately, robustly and effectively, that there were no...
