Ofcom's age-check crackdown puts platforms on notice — what it means for advertisers
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
Ofcom's Use of Age Assurance report, published on 15 July 2026, records more than 69 million age checks across 32 services and warns social platforms that inferring a user's age is no longer good enough — a shift that will tighten how brands reach younger audiences.
Age checks are working — but not everywhere
Ofcom's latest report is the clearest picture yet of the Online Safety Act in action. Between July and December 2025, more than 69 million age checks were completed across 32 services, and the share of children encountering highly effective age verification rose from 25% to 43% in just six months.
The regulator's verdict is deliberately double-edged: real progress, but, in the words of Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, 'the job is not done and tech companies need to go further.'
The sharpest signal for the industry is a new formal investigation into TikTok's age-assurance approach, driven by concern that it leans too heavily on inferring age rather than verifying it.
The end of 'guessing' a user's age
For advertisers, the technical detail matters. Many platforms have long estimated age through behavioural signals — what you watch, follow and search. Ofcom is now saying that inference is not enough to enforce protections for under-16s.
Ofcom will publish guidance by October 2026 on what counts as 'highly effective' age verification for confirming someone is over 16. That pushes platforms toward harder checks, which in turn changes the age data underpinning ad targeting.
In short, the audiences you buy against are about to be defined by verified age, not estimated age — a quieter but significant change to how youth-adjacent targeting works.
Why this lands on marketers' desks
The most exposed brands are those advertising age-restricted products — alcohol, gambling, and less healthy food and drink. Tighter verification means fewer accidental impressions on under-18s, but also more scrutiny and less room to claim 'we didn't know'.
There is an upside. More reliable age gates make platforms safer places to advertise and give brands a stronger compliance story — useful when a single misplaced ad can trigger an ASA ruling or a reputational storm.
It also nudges targeting away from ever-narrower behavioural slicing and back toward context and creative — a healthier long-term basis for reaching audiences than data that regulators keep tightening.
Marketing Minute's take: build for a verified-age internet
Our advice is to stop treating age assurance as someone else's compliance problem. If your media plan relies on reaching people close to the 18 line, assume the guard rails will only get stricter through 2026 and 2027.
Audit where your age-restricted campaigns run, insist on platforms' verified-age controls rather than inferred ones, and keep creative that would be defensible if a regulator screenshotted it. Compliance-by-design is cheaper than a ruling.
Quick FAQ
What did Ofcom's age assurance report find?
Published on 15 July 2026, it recorded more than 69 million age checks across 32 services in the second half of 2025 and found the share of children meeting highly effective age verification rose from 25% to 43% in six months — while warning platforms to go further.
Why is Ofcom investigating TikTok?
Ofcom opened a formal investigation into TikTok's age-assurance methods over concern that it relies too heavily on inferring users' ages rather than verifying them, which Ofcom says is insufficient to protect under-16s.
How does this affect advertisers?
Tighter, verified age checks reshape the audience data behind targeting and raise the compliance bar for age-restricted categories like alcohol, gambling and HFSS. Brands should use verified-age controls and keep creative that would withstand regulator scrutiny.
Age assurance is quietly rewiring audience targeting. When platforms must verify rather than guess a user's age, the buying pools around the 18 line change — and so does a brand's compliance exposure. Smart advertisers are moving to verified-age controls now, before the guidance in October forces the issue.
— Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Takeaway: the internet is shifting from inferred age to verified age. Audit your age-restricted media and switch to verified-age targeting before regulators tighten the rules further.
Do you actually know how the platforms you buy verify age — or are you trusting a guess?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Related reading
Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
Comments