Age Verification Online
IICSA · The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · Issued 20 October 2022 · Addressed to: UK Government
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, K.9
The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its The Internet Investigation Report, dated March 2020) that the UK government introduces legislation requiring providers of online services and social media platforms to implement more stringent age verification measures.
IICSA, The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 20 Oct 2022 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The Online Safety Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. Section 11-12 require providers of services likely to be accessed by children to use age verification or age estimation measures (Online Safety Act 2023).
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government
We accept the need to protect children from harmful and age-inappropriate content. The Online Safety Bill requires all in-scope companies to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by children and, if so, deliver safety measures for them.
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 31 Jan 2026 Online Safety Act child safety duties commenced 25 July 2025, including age verification requirements. Ofcom monitoring enforcement. Government completed feasibility study on age assurance tools. Source →
- 8 Apr 2025 Completed feasibility study on datasets for age assurance tools; monitoring Online Safety Act enforcement by Ofcom. Study findings publication imminent. Source →
- 21 Jan 2025 · Home Affairs Select Committee Professor Alexis Jay told Home Affairs Committee that £187m was spent on IICSA and "to date none of its final recommendations had been implemented." Called for "full implementation" saying "get it done." View source → No Meaningful Progress
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.