Ofcom reports that roughly 150,000 16- and 17-year-olds in the UK lack a passport or driving licence, which may be required as a fallback for age verification under the country's planned ban on under-16 social media access. The regulator outlined four 'highly effective' verification methods, including photo ID checks, bank age confirmation, digital ID services and facial age estimation, but said official ID would likely be needed as a backstop since facial estimation can be inaccurate by several years. The ban on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube is set to take effect next spring.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-30
Ofcom has published guidance on how social media platforms could check whether users are over 16, ahead of the UK's social media ban taking effect in March. The regulator recommends photo ID matching, banking-based checks, facial age estimation and digital ID services as 'highly effective' options, alongside traditional ID documents. Implementation details are left to individual platforms, and the proposals still require government approval.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-10-29
Discord announced that Discoverable Servers with more than 1,000 members will get dedicated web pages summarizing community descriptions and public channel conversations, making them findable through search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo. Private DMs, group chats, and non-discoverable servers will remain unaffected, and admins can opt out via Server settings > Web presence.
zdnet.com
· 2026-10-28
Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation mandating AI companies offer age verification methods, at least one not solely reliant on government ID, and delete collected age data after use. For users under 18 or unverified as adults, chatbots are barred from pretending to be human, claiming personal relationships, discussing self-harm or suicide, or sharing sexually explicit content. Violations can bring civil penalties up to $25,000 each plus damages, with the law taking effect in six months.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-28
iOS 27.2 introduces a new age-verification option that lets users confirm they are an adult by taking a selfie, which an on-device and Private Cloud Compute age-estimation model evaluates. Apple says the feature supplements existing methods like ID scans or credit card checks, and applies in regions including Australia, Brazil, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, and Texas in the US. The company states the selfie is never accessible to anyone, including Apple, and is deleted immediately after age confirmation.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-27
Greece has enacted a law prohibiting children under 15 from using social media platforms, effective January 1, 2027. The law mandates platforms adopt reliable age-verification systems and requires parents to use government-approved apps to enforce access restrictions, with penalties tied to the EU's Digital Services Act for noncompliance. Prime Minister Mitsotakis pushed the bill through using his parliamentary majority over objections from minority parties.
tech.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-23
Current and former TikTok employees told NPR that internal reports flagged minors appearing in sexual content that viewers paid to access, with TikTok profiting from the transactions. They also said staff raised concerns about underage users evading age restrictions and blocking parental oversight, and about TikTok avoiding age-verification surveys to dodge FTC scrutiny. Employees say senior leadership knew but responded inadequately, and that concerns about suicide and self-harm content shown to minors were similarly unaddressed.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-21
Deposition records cited by NPR show TikTok employees repeatedly warned executives about child safety failures, including minors appearing in Live streams where viewers could pay for 'gifts,' and said the company was aware of and profiting from such content. Staff also flagged a signup loophole letting minors bypass age checks via Facebook, Instagram or Google accounts, and a hidden link allowing teens to disable parental 'family pairing' controls. The documents emerged from ongoing lawsuits against TikTok over its handling of child safety; TikTok did not provide NPR an on-the-record response.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-20
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Utah's SB 73, which required adult websites to detect users' physical locations and block or age-verify anyone using a VPN. The court found the law likely violates the Constitution's restrictions on states burdening people and businesses outside their borders, since it would force sites to verify every visitor worldwide. EFF, which opposed the law, called the ruling a win for digital privacy rights.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-17
The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched its 2026 Opt Out October guide on Thursday, offering instructions for disabling AI data training, social media tracking and age verification across various platforms. The guide also lists alternative services for social media, browsers, design tools and operating systems, and the EFF says it will update the guide as circumstances change.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-01
A federal court issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Utah's SB 73, which required adult websites to detect and block VPN users or verify the physical location of visitors using privacy tools, and banned instructions on using VPNs to bypass age checks. The judge found the law likely violates the Constitution's restriction on states burdening people and businesses outside their borders, since it would effectively force sites to age-verify every visitor nationwide in case they were an obfuscating Utah resident.
eff.org
· 2026-10-01
WhatsApp announced new parental controls that let parents restrict who can see a teen's profile photo, invite them to groups, or message them, along with limits on channels and status updates. The controls also extend to Meta AI's chatbot, offering a restricted mode for younger users, and require a single parent-set PIN to activate. WhatsApp says personal messages and calls remain private even from parents who enable the controls.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-01
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