LONDON—Social media networks Bluesky and Reddit are now overhauling their trust and safety programs in compliance with the United Kingdom's "robust" age verification requirements established under the Online Safety Act of 2023. This means that users from the U.K. of both websites will need to be confirmed to be 18 years or older in order to view adult content on them.
Bluesky and Reddit are two mainstream social media networks that allow uncensored nudity, sexually explicit material and amateur pornography. Both are additionally top platforms for being friendly to LGBTQ+ adult content creators. Both platforms are deploying third-party software to verify ages to block children from age-restricted content.
"Notably, the U.K. Online Safety Act has new requirements to implement additional measures to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content," a blog post from Reddit's trust and safety program states. "So, starting July 14 in the U.K., we will begin collecting and verifying your age before you can view certain mature content."
A blog post by Bluesky's trust and safety program notes, "In the U.K., the Online Safety Act requires that online platforms take specific steps to reduce the risk of children seeing harmful content. Since certain parts of that act come into effect later this month, we’re making some changes for people in the U.K."
Reddit is set to use the age-check vendor Persona. Bluesky is using Epic Games' Kids Web Services toolkit.
