Should I upload my ID to verify my age?
Age checks are spreading quickly. The UK’s Online Safety Act has required them for adult and some social content since July 2025. Australia has banned social media accounts for under-16s since December 2025. Texas and other US states now require app stores to check ages. The EU plans to have its age-verification app available in every member state by the end of 2026. Services respond by asking some users to prove they are adults.
Most people are not asked. Discord, YouTube, Google Search and Instagram mostly estimate your age from signals they already have, such as account age and activity. Discord, which started rolling this out in late September 2026, says more than 90 percent of its users will not need to verify anything. You usually only see a prompt if the estimate says you might be a teen, or if you open something marked adult-only.
If you are asked, pick the method that shares the least. In rough order, from least to most data handed over:
- An age signal from your app store account. Apple and Google can confirm an age range without sending your ID to the service. Discord accepts this.
- A credit card check. It proves you are an adult without a document scan. Only use it inside the official app or site.
- A face age estimate. You take a short selfie video and software guesses your age. Prefer providers that say the estimate happens on your device or that the image is deleted right after. Read the screen before you start.
- A government ID upload. This hands over your name, date of birth, address, ID number and photo. Use it only when there is no other option.
Why the ID upload is last. Each upload makes another copy of your ID, held by the service or by a verification vendor you have never heard of. These vendors are attractive targets. Discord’s support vendor leaked about 70,000 ID photos in October 2025, and in September 2026 the verification company IDScan was found to have leaked more than 150 million licenses and passports. If your ID is already in a leak, see what to do if your ID was leaked.
Watch out for fake age checks. Scammers now copy age-verification screens. Real checks only appear inside the official app or website, at the moment you try to open something. Never verify your age through a link in an email, text, DM or Discord message, and never send ID photos to a person, even someone claiming to be a moderator.
What about a VPN? Use of VPNs to get around UK checks has risen. A VPN only changes where you appear to be connecting from, and services increasingly estimate age from account activity whatever your location. A VPN is not a reliable way to avoid these checks, and free VPNs often have weak privacy practices of their own.