Age assurance is on course to become a baseline requirement for digital services globally. The G7 digital ministers agreed a common approach to children’s safety for the first time in May 2026, with effective age assurance as a central pillar. In the UK, the government’s recent proposals to restrict social media access for under-16s, alongside a three-month deadline for platforms to prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images, have further sharpened regulatory expectations.
If you missed our second webinar in our three-part Online Safety Regulatory Readiness Series, you can now watch the on-demand replay. Hosted by Resolver’s Head of Trust & Safety, George Vlasto, the panel brought together Dan Fitter, Policy Development Principal at Ofcom; Michael Connell, Assistant Director at Coimisiún na Meán; Wei Lynn Ng, Principal Policy Adviser at the ICO; Mitali Sud, Senior Policy Manager at Internet Matters; and Resolver’s Regulatory Strategy expert, Natalia Greene.
Watch the replay to understand what Trust & Safety leaders, legal counsel, and compliance teams need to know about:
- What “highly effective” age assurance requires in practice. Learn why meeting the standard end-to-end is different from meeting it in test conditions.
- Where platforms are falling short. From age assurance treated as a one-time signup event, to determinations based on weak signals, to content classification failures, understand the flaws that undermine the whole system.
- The circumvention reality. Internet Matters research shows 46% of children believe age checks are easy to bypass. Understand the tactics regulators expect platforms to have anticipated, and what robust mitigation looks like.
- The dual regulatory obligation. Why OSA compliance does not equal data protection compliance, and what governance structures platforms need to evidence under both regimes.
- How regulators are coordinating across the UK, Ireland, and the EU. What this means for platforms and online services operating across jurisdictions.
You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how regulators evaluate age assurance, what platforms most commonly get wrong, and what your team needs to demonstrate as expectations continue to evolve.
Watch the on-demand session above to hear directly from Ofcom, the ICO, and Coimisiún na Meán on what effective age assurance requires in practice.
