Report from Financial Times
In Brief – Meta has announced plans to adopt a new age-verification credential, AgeKeys, developed by Singapore-based start-up k-ID, as it responds to intensifying global online safety regulation. The reusable, passkey-based credential is being developed through the OpenAge Initiative, a k-ID-run project launched last month that bills AgeKeys as the first interoperable “global age signal.” Users verify their age once and can then reuse the credential across multiple services, reducing repeated checks. OpenAge says more than 7 million AgeKeys have already been used via k-ID’s technology. Meta, which called AgeID a “much more user friendly option” than the age checks used today, plans to roll it out on its major platforms in the UK, Australia and Brazil in 2026, and will consider expansion elsewhere. However, Meta continues to argue to policymakers that app stores, rather than individual platforms, should ultimately be responsible for age verification to ensure consistent protection for minors across all apps as well as being the most efficient way to gain parental consent in regimes that allow for it.
Context – Online age verification is on the march worldwide, rapidly expanding along a rubric of porn, social media, and game sites. Although Australia’s age verification mandate made news globally as part of their new law requiring a teenager to be 16 to have social media accounts, online age checks in Australia are also now required to limit access by minors to a range of harmful online content, including porn. As a result, age checks are also now required for search engines in Australia, including Google and Bing, because search can lead to porn sites. The UK Online Safety Act, which prompted a growing number of porn, social media, and gaming sites to implement age verification in that country, has led to a growing use of VPN services in the UK to circumvent checks. There is expected to be a similar use of VPNs in Australia. Officials in the UK and legislators in several US states trying to impose age-based social media limits are calling for restrictions on VPNs to stymie that work-around. Meanwhile, long-held concerns of privacy and civil liberties advocates to age checks are failing to stem the tide.