Australia, the UK, and New Zealand converge on age checks
Australia, the UK, and New Zealand have independently implemented age assurance regulations for online services, specifically targeting social media, pornography, and gambling, respectively. These legislative efforts aim to protect children and regulate online activities, despite the underlying technology for high-confidence age verification still developing to meet specific thresholds without privacy trade-offs. The article highlights an accidental convergence of three distinct regulatory approaches, driven by political pressures but utilizing a shared, evolving technology toolkit, leading to varying compliance standards and effectiveness across jurisdictions.
Key Takeaways
- Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act 2024 requires “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s off nine designated social media services, with penalties up to A$49.5 million.
- The UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 requires highly effective age assurance for pornography sites from July 2025, with fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global turnover.
- New Zealand’s Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 will let up to 15 licensed operators serve local users from 1 December 2026, and all users must be verified as over 18.
- Australia’s A$6.5 million trial tested more than 60 solutions from 48 vendors, and the eSafety Commissioner found four failure modes across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
- The same vendor set — including Yoti, Age Check Certification Scheme, Veriff, and Onfido — is now being deployed across all three markets.
Why It Matters
These rules force streaming and platform operators to implement age checks now, even though no single system fully meets the 16- and 18-year thresholds regulators want without either adding privacy risk or missing users. The competitive angle is that vendor-led convergence is already forming around a small group of suppliers, with Ofcom’s HEAA standard acting as the de facto benchmark while Australia and New Zealand use different legal language. Watch New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs technical standards before the December 2026 licensing round, because they will show whether that market aligns with Australia and the UK or diverges.
Read full article at themodernregulator.com
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