Reddit users in the United Kingdom are now required to verify their age as a way to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.
The new requirement comes after the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA) introduced new steps for platforms to take to block children from encountering harmful content, like pornography and material promoting self-harm.
Reddit will use the third-party service Persona to confirm a user’s age, necessitating users to submit a picture of their government-issued identity documents or take a selfie. Reddit said it will not have access to these images, and will only save the person’s verification status and their date of birth.
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.
Critics have long warned of the security and privacy risks associated with private companies collecting and storing large amounts of people’s identity documents.
Last week, Bluesky announced that users in the UK will be required to verify their age in light of OSA’s update.
