Ofcom Pushes Age Assurance in Online Dating: Founders Must Act

Ofcom has published its first Use of Age Assurance Report 2026, marking a significant milestone in child protection efforts under the Online Safety Act. The comprehensive report assesses how online services are implementing age checks to safeguard children, drawing on evidence from the first six months following the start of child protection duties in July 2025. This evaluation focuses on three critical sectors: pornography, social media, and online dating.

Understanding Age Assurance Implementation

The report examines the impact of age assurance on children's online experiences and identifies areas needing improvement across the digital landscape. Ofcom notes that when implemented properly, highly effective age checks can work to protect young users from inappropriate content. The findings will inform upcoming discussions on social media restrictions for under-16s, a topic of growing concern for parents and policymakers alike.

The UK government announced plans in June 2026 to require social media services to use highly effective age assurance to prevent under-16 access. This represents a significant shift in how platforms will need to verify user ages. Ofcom will deliver a rapid assessment to Parliament by the end of October on how such checks could function in practice.

Key Challenges in Age Verification

The report highlights several critical points relevant to age restrictions that reveal the complexity of the issue. No single age assurance method eliminates circumvention risk, meaning services cannot rely on just one approach. Layered protections across the system, including from app stores, operating systems, and devices, are recommended to create a more robust barrier.

No single age assurance method eliminates circumvention risk, and layered protections across the system are essential for effective child protection.

Some techniques like credit card checks are not suitable for 16- and 17-year-olds who typically lack access to such financial instruments. Alternative methods will be needed to verify the ages of older teenagers without creating accessibility barriers. This presents a particular challenge for services trying to balance protection with user experience.

Age inference has been ruled out as highly effective for preventing child access, particularly for porn sites. This method requires prior user activity to make determinations, making it unsuitable for first-time visitors or users without an established digital footprint. The ruling represents a significant limitation for services that had hoped to rely on behavioral patterns for age verification.

Ofcom's Call for Immediate Action

Ofcom is calling on services to take immediate action across multiple fronts to improve child safety online. Pornography services without age checks should introduce highly effective age assurance without delay, as these sites pose the most immediate risk to children. The urgency of this requirement reflects the severity of potential harms from unrestricted access to adult content.

Search engines like Google and Bing have agreed to explore solutions for discoverability of unprotected porn services. Ofcom encourages broader industry cooperation to ensure that age-gated content is not easily circumvented through search results. This collaborative approach recognizes that effective protection requires action from multiple stakeholders in the digital ecosystem.

Services using age inference should switch to other highly effective methods or provide compelling evidence of effectiveness to meet child protection standards.

Services with age assurance must ensure it meets Ofcom's guidance on highly effective age assurance (HEAA). They must conduct regular vendor due diligence and comply with privacy obligations. This ongoing responsibility means implementation is not a one-time task but requires continuous monitoring and improvement.

Next Steps and Enforcement Priorities

The regulator has identified three main areas for improvement and urges services to review their processes urgently. While the report focuses on identifying current gaps and best practices, it also sets the stage for more stringent enforcement measures. Services that fail to meet the required standards face potential regulatory action.

Enforcement action remains a priority, particularly for high-risk porn sites that continue to operate without adequate age verification. Ofcom's commitment to holding non-compliant services accountable demonstrates the seriousness with which child protection duties are being treated. The combination of guidance, assessment, and enforcement creates a comprehensive regulatory framework designed to drive meaningful change in how services protect young users online.