Age verification

What happens today

When you create an account you confirm that you are at least 18 years old, and at least the age of majority wherever you are. That declaration is a term of the agreement: making it falsely is a breach, and the account is terminated when we become aware of it.

We act on credible reports and on signals that surface in the ordinary course of operating the service. That is enforcement after the fact, not verification before it, and we are not going to describe it as the latter.

What is planned

Document or database-backed verification through a specialist provider is intended. Selecting that provider is an open decision — it determines what data is collected, who processes it and where it is retained, and those consequences are not reversible once customers are onboarded through it.

When a provider is integrated, this page will describe what it actually checks, what it stores and for how long. Until then it will keep saying that no such check runs.

If you are building on the API

This matters more to you than to an individual user. If you operate a platform that serves end users, the age-assurance obligation for those users is yours. Nothing in this service discharges it, and no part of the API performs an age check on a person you serve.

• Several jurisdictions now require documented age assurance for adult content. Assess your own exposure — the UK, several US states and a number of EU member states have differing regimes.
• Implement verification in your own application layer, before a user reaches any generated content.
• Keep your own records. The platform does not store an age assurance result for your end users, because it never receives one.

If you are under 18

You may not use this service. If you have created an account, stop using it and contact us so it can be removed. We do not knowingly permit access by minors and we act on reports promptly.

If you believe an account belongs to a minor, tell us. Reports are treated as urgent.

For parents and guardians

Because we cannot yet verify age documentarily, device and network level controls are the more reliable protection. Operating system content restrictions, network filtering and supervised accounts do not depend on a platform’s self-declaration being truthful.

Absolute limits

Two prohibitions are not subject to any verification status, jurisdiction or contract term. Sexual content involving minors is forbidden absolutely, and so is depicting a real person without their documented, revocable consent. These are grounds for immediate termination and, where applicable, referral to the relevant authorities.

These are set out in full in the acceptable use policy.

This statement sits alongside the terms of service, the acceptable use policy and the content policy.