The UK's online gambling landscape changed sharply in September 2025. The new national rules capped online slot stakes at £5 per spin for adults and £2 for anyone under 25. Ministers framed the move as a fairness measure that simply puts online casinos on the same footing as land-based venues, where the same ceiling has existed for years. Operators now follow a rulebook that fixes the upper boundary of a single spin and leaves little room for interpretation.
Age Range for Apps shares your age range with apps to help keep experiences age-appropriate. If you are 13 or older, you can set this feature up yourself. If you are under a Family Sharing group, a parent or guardian will need to help manage your age range and related controls in Family Sharing settings. app age rating system, which it updated in February in order to provide more granular categorization for apps, especially among teen audiences .
So Reddit will be using an age prediction model to determine user ages, in the hopes that this will ensure that underage users can't log into the app, though kids will still be able to view a non-logged-in version of the platform.
For years, lawmakers at the state and federal levels have tried a variety of measures aimed at making kids safer on the internet, from kids-tailored design standards to age verification for individual websites. More recently, a new model has caught on in the states, and now it's gaining steam in Congress: putting the onus on app stores nationwide. The new approach to age verification orders mobile app stores to verify users' ages, then send that information to apps when users download them.
In the past few years, governments across the world have rolled out different digital identification options, and now there are efforts encouraging online companies to implement identity and age verification requirements with digital ID in mind. This blog is the third in a short series that explains digital ID and the pending use case of age verification. Here, we cover alternative frameworks on age controls, updates on parental controls, and the importance of digital privacy in an increasingly hostile climate politically.
Recently, several U.S. states passed laws requiring strong age verification for adult content online. Now, lawmakers in Wisconsin and Michigan are pushing the envelope even further. Not only do their new bills demand age checks-they require adult content sites to block access from any VPN provider, for any user, not just minors. On Security Now, Steve Gibson explained that these bills stem from concerns that residents are using VPNs to evade new state-level restrictions by appearing to connect from somewhere else.
The regulator Ofcom investigated Itai Tech Ltd, which provides AI tools allowing users to edit images to seemingly remove someone's clothing. On Thursday, Ofcom said it had fined the company 50,000 for its age check failings, plus an additional 5,000 for not responding to its information requests. BBC News has contacted Itai Tech Ltd for comment. The nudity website it runs is currently not accessible from a UK IP address.
Malaysia plans to ban social media for users under the age of 16 starting from next year, joining a growing list of countries choosing to limit access to digital platforms due to concerns about child safety. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Sunday the government was reviewing mechanisms used to impose age restrictions for social media use in Australia and other nations, citing a need to protect youths from online harms such as cyberbullying, financial scams and child sexual abuse.
From December 10, 2025, all users in Australia under 16 years of age will have their accounts locked. If you are under 16, you will not be able to maintain or create a Snapchat account. If you have an existing Snapchat account, we encourage you to download your data as soon as possible. You can scan your government-issued identification card and our third-party service provider, k-ID, will scan and validate your ID document and age.
Twitch will no longer allow Australians under 16 to create accounts starting December 10, a Twitch spokesperson told TechCrunch. Existing accounts for users under 16 will be deactivated on January 9. Globally, Twitch is open to users 13 and older, and anyone under the legal age of adulthood in their region must have a parent or guardian involved, the spokesperson said.
The law requires platforms to use "commercially reasonable methods," which it says include a screen that prompts the user to enter a birth date. However, NetChoice argues that Virginia could go beyond this requirement, citing a post from Governor Youngkin on X, stating "platforms must verify age," potentially referring to stricter methods, like having users submit a government ID or other personal information.
Several months after AI-powered age verification rolled out to YouTube, age checks are hitting another Google service. Over the past several days, users have spotted a new age verification system appearing on the Google Play Store. When attempting to download certain apps, users are greeted with a verification pop-up asking to confirm their age. According to reports from people who have already seen this pop-up, you aren't able to download many apps until this is done.
