Due to the threat of fines, Bluesky is now checking the age of British users

In the UK, Bluesky is now checking the age of its users. The social network is legally obliged to do so to protect minors in the country, and the supervisory authorities are threatening to impose heavy fines for non-compliance from July 25 of this year. British Bluesky users must therefore now prove their age when requested by the app.

The UK had already introduced mandatory age verification for pornography in 2023 with the controversial Online Safety Bill. According to the British government, all online services, including social media, that distribute pornographic content must carry out an age check in the future. However, this has hardly been enforced to date.

British threatened with high fines from July 25

However, at the beginning of this year, the British regulatory authority Ofcom increased the pressure and warned porn sites to carry out age verification; otherwise, it would be expensive. The regulator threatened coercive measures and fines of up to 18 million pounds or 10 percent of their global annual turnover, whichever is higher. At the end of June, Ofcom explained the age checks again and emphasized that the platforms would be obliged to do so from 25 July.

Around two weeks before this deadline, Bluesky has therefore now introduced such an age check in the UK. British Bluesky users are now being asked to prove their age. To achieve this, they can upload a picture of their ID, check a payment card, or have their face scanned. Bluesky uses Epic Games' Kids Web Services (KWS) for this process, which the company also uses to carry out age checks for its platforms and games.

Access restrictions for rejection and children

Users are first asked to provide an email address, which they then use to receive further information about age verification. If users reject the age check or are under the age of 18, Bluesky restricts access. In this case, “content suitable for adults” will be blocked for these users. In addition, some functions are disabled, such as direct messages.

Bluesky writes in its blog that it is working with the British government so that users can feel safe in an open and decentralized social network. Further measures in addition to the age check have not been ruled out. “In addition to these updates, we will continue to look at how we can protect children from unwanted content and how we can improve,” it adds.

(fds)