Age Verification in 2026: Which Countries Require What

In 2026, adults are asked to prove their age before seeing sexual content in the United Kingdom, in 25 to 27 US states depending on who is counting, in France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Australia, and increasingly inside the app stores themselves. The rules differ in who they cover, which checks count and when they took effect. This guide lists each one with its date and a primary or reputable source, and explains what it means for adults who use AI companion services.

This article summarises laws and regulator guidance; it is not legal advice.

Which countries require age verification in 2026?

The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Australia, plus 25 to 27 US states and Texas's app-store law, each under its own rule and date. The table summarises them; the sections below give the detail.

What does the UK Online Safety Act require?

"Highly effective age assurance" before anyone can see pornography. Services that publish their own pornographic content, which Ofcom says includes certain generative AI tools, have had to take steps since 17 January 2025, when the relevant duty (section 81) came into force. User-to-user and search services that allow pornography had until July 2025, and the Protection of Children Codes came into force on 25 July 2025.

Ofcom's non-exhaustive list of methods capable of being highly effective is open banking, photo-ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile-network operator checks, credit card checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation. Self-declaration and online payments that do not require the payer to be 18 do not qualify, and pornographic content must not be visible before or during the check. Companies can be fined up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater, as the government's Online Safety Act explainer sets out.

What did the US Supreme Court decide in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton?

On 27 June 2025 the Court upheld Texas's H.B. 1181 by six votes to three. The law requires commercial sites where more than one-third of the material is sexual material harmful to minors to verify that visitors are 18 or older, using government-issued identification or a commercially reasonable method based on transactional data. Writing for the majority, Justice Thomas held that the law "triggers, and survives, review under intermediate scrutiny" because it only incidentally burdens adults' protected speech; Justice Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson. The full opinion of the Court is published by the Supreme Court.

How many US states require age checks for adult sites?

Between 25 and 27, depending on the source and the date. A state-by-state timeline updated in March 2026 counted 25 states with some form of age-verification law. An age-verification industry tracker updated in September 2026 lists at least 27 states that have passed laws requiring age verification for online pornography, with effective dates running from Louisiana on 1 January 2023 to laws that took effect in 2026. A digital-rights group, writing at the start of 2026, put it as half of the United States mandating age verification for adult content or social media.

The counts differ because sources draw lines differently: laws passed or laws in force, statutes or regulations, adult sites only or social media too, and the date of the count. If you need a precise list for a given state, read that state's law or a tracker dated within the last few weeks.

What changed for app stores in 2026?

App stores started checking age themselves. From 24 February 2026, Apple blocks users in Australia, Brazil and Singapore from downloading apps rated 18+ unless they have been confirmed as adults through reasonable methods, and for new Apple Accounts in Utah (from 6 May 2026) and Louisiana (from 1 July 2026) it shares users' age categories with apps that ask for them.

Texas went further. Its App Store Accountability Act (S.B. 2420) requires app stores to sort users into age categories (under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, and adults), link minors' accounts to a parent, obtain parental consent for each download or in-app purchase by a minor, and pass the age category to developers. A federal court blocked it before its planned 1 January 2026 start, but a Fifth Circuit panel stayed that injunction on 28 May 2026, the court granted a stay pending appeal on 4 June 2026, and on 6 July 2026 the Supreme Court declined to block the law, leaving it enforceable while the appeal continues.

What do France, Italy, Germany and Ireland require?

Each has its own rule, built on top of EU guidance. In July 2025 the European Commission published guidelines under the Digital Services Act that recommend age verification to restrict access to adult content such as pornography and gambling.

• France: since 11 January 2025, pornographic sites accessible in France and hosted in France or outside the EU must meet Arcom's technical standard. Checks by bank card were tolerated until 11 April 2025; after that, sites must offer a "double anonymity" option, in which the site learns only that the user is an adult and the verifier does not learn which site is being visited. Sites established in other EU countries were brought in by a ministerial order of 26 February 2025, and Arcom sent formal notices to five of them on 1 August 2025.
• Italy: AGCOM's age-verification obligations for sites and platforms distributing pornography in Italy apply from 12 November 2025, with warnings first and fines of up to €250,000 for non-compliance.
• Germany: the interstate treaty on the protection of minors in the media (JMStV) already required age-verification systems for adult content. A reform that entered into force on 1 December 2025 adds youth-protection obligations for operating systems, once the authority designates them (by 1 December 2026), with one to three years to implement.
• Ireland: Part B of Coimisiún na Meán's Online Safety Code applies from 21 July 2025. Video-sharing platforms established in Ireland must use age assurance to keep adult-only video content from children, and self-declaration alone is not considered effective.

What does Australia require from AI companion chatbots?

Age checks, where the chatbot can produce sexually explicit material. Australia's Age-Restricted Material Codes took effect for search engines, internet providers and hosting services on 27 December 2025, and for websites, social media, app stores and other services on 9 March 2026. The eSafety Commissioner lists AI chatbots and generative AI services capable of generating sexually explicit, self-harm or high-impact violence material among the services that must check age.

Some requirements are staged: age checks for logged-in search users had to be in place before 27 June 2026, and app stores must check age before R18+ downloads by 9 September 2026. eSafety's examples of acceptable methods include photo-ID matching, facial age estimation, credit card checks and digital identity wallets, and it requires services to minimise the personal information they collect.

How do age checks work, and what happens to your data?

Most checks use one of four methods: estimating age from a selfie, matching a photo ID, checking a card or bank account, or using a digital identity. The privacy-friendly versions pass only a yes-or-no result to the site. France's double-anonymity model builds that separation into the rules, and Australia's codes require data minimisation.

Before you complete a check, it is worth looking for three things: who runs it (usually a named specialist provider), what the site itself receives (ideally only the result), and how long the provider keeps your selfie or document. Swipey's UK check is built that way: a specialist provider runs it, and Swipey is designed to receive only the result it needs to unlock access.

How does Swipey verify age?

Swipey is for adults only, and it checks: everyone confirms they are 18 or older on entry and again at checkout, and users in the UK pass a highly effective check before any adult content unlocks. According to Swipey's UK Age Assurance Statement, UK users, and users treated as being in the UK when their location is uncertain, are sent to the verification provider Ondato for a selfie liveness check with age estimation, and are asked for an identity document if the estimate does not clearly show an adult. Self-declaration is not accepted for UK users.

The statement says Swipey is designed to receive only the outcome it needs to unlock access, such as a pass result, rather than your identity document or selfie. Swipey's Terms of Service apply the same age-assurance approach wherever the law requires stronger measures than a declaration, and the help center explains the process in How does Swipey AI check my age?

Once you are through, Swipey is a space built only for adults. Build your own AI girlfriend in Create AI and pick her personality, such as Innocent, Playful, Dominant or Submissive, each with its own spice level; with Premium, every chat has its own relationship level, and each level-up drops a reward video in your chat. To see what the platform keeps about you, read your data on an AI companion platform, or start with your AI girlfriend.