On July 25th, the UK became one of the first countries to widely implement age verification. Following a yearslong political push to make the internet safer for kids, age verification has started seeping into online spaces across the globe. “There is no standardization of how age verification is supposed to take place.”Some age verification platforms promise to erase your data after a certain period of time, like the seven days that Persona says it will keep the information used to verify your age on Reddit. Age verification was long viewed as unconstitutional in the US, but the Supreme Court overturned that precedent earlier in 2025, concluding “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification” if it’s meant to protect underage users from “obscene” content. Not all age verification efforts entrust users’ privacy to third-party services with a host of different methods.