Age verification is becoming a significant problem for users in the UK across multiple platforms, and now Apple is the latest to join the party, forcing iPhone users on iOS 26.4 to verify their age with ID to continue accessing certain services and applications.
In a similar fashion to Discord, Apple’s iOS will check your account’s ‘age’, but if under 18, it will default to requesting credit card information, a facial ID scan, or a government ID, such as a driver’s license.
These measures are a result of UK law, which has effectively forced several companies to enforce age verification systems on their platforms, and unsurprisingly, that has not sat well with users — and frankly, not with me either.
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“This whole thing is such a mess”, one user on Reddit said. “Not everyone uses credit cards, and not everyone has a valid ID or license for the country they are living in. If this starts affecting me using apps, I will switch to Android”.
Big Brother Watch director, Silkie Carlo, also weighed in on the controversial measure and said, “It is beyond outrageous. Unless you give an ID or credit card, you now have a child’s device with restricted access to information. Apple must U-turn on this.”
Age verification is a massive risk for everyone
While there are plenty of important points to be discussed surrounding age verification, I, like many others, believe it’s the privacy and ID safety concerns among users that aren’t being considered by Apple, Discord, and the governments that support these measures.
We’ve already seen numerous cases of data breaches, notably Discord itself, with over 70,000 government ID photos leaked, and more recently, Persona, the facial recognition system that Discord previously utilized to complete age checks. Apple and the UK government shouldn’t be shocked at the backlash from internet users.
Age checks are said to be implemented to help protect children online, which everyone can support. But if that’s the aim, why not press for wider and more consistent use of the parental controls already available on a wide variety of social media platforms? These new polices instead feel like punishments that will largely impact adults.
Once data breaches occur (not a certainty, but always a strong possibility) and pivotal information is readily available to malicious hackers or fraudsters, there’s no going back, and apologies from corporations won’t fix anything. At the very least, it’s good that Apple has made verification possible via credit card information, as it’s slightly less invasive compared to a passport or driver’s license as ID — but again, not all adults have credit cards.
What’s worse is that switching from iOS users to Android devices might not prove worthwhile over time. The same age verification measures are already in place on Google Play Services, meaning users will need to complete age verification to continue installing certain applications.
The major advantage the Android operating system has is the ability to download applications from external sources when enabling the ‘install unknown sources’ option. It’s also worth noting that GrapheneOS (an Android-based OS) isn’t complying with age verification laws, so its users are in the clear as it stands.
However, I rule out the chance that installing from external sources will be the next setting that is attacked by law on Android devices, especially once iOS users defect to Android, and find that option as a way out of any form of age verification. Fortunately, though, Android is a safer bet over iOS in avoiding ID checks, via its alternative methods to download apps — and I’m hoping it stays that way.
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