The latest beta of iOS 26.4 has an extra step for iPhone owners based in the UK. Once installed, the Settings app will prompt you to confirm that you are 18+.
If Apple isn’t sure how old you are, you may need to scan a credit card or photo ID to confirm that you’re an adult. In my case, it was completely automatic and took less than 30 seconds …
The UK’s Online Safety Act requires tech giants to verify users are adults before giving unrestricted access to all available content.
This was mostly sold to the public as a way of preventing children from accessing pornography, with adult sites required to carry out age verification if a visitor’s IP address shows them to be based in the UK. In practice, of course, it simply ensures that teenagers know how to use a VPN.
Since some apps in the App Store are designed for those 18+, Apple is now required to carry out age verification in order to provide unrestricted access.
The company says it may be able to determine your age automatically.
Apple may use information about your payment methods on file or the length of time you have maintained an Apple Account to confirm you are an adult. A valid credit card can help confirm you’re at least 18 because you must be an adult to open a credit card account.
Where this is the case, as it was for me, then there are just three steps taking just a few seconds. Immediately after installation, there was a new prompt in the settings app.
The next screen explains the reason for this and advised that Apple may already be able to determine my age.
In my case, simply tapping the continue button completed the process.
I was half expecting Apple to see the OG Macintosh in my purchase history and demand proof that I’m still alive.
If anyone in the UK is asked to prove their age, please do share screenshots of the process.
9to5Mac’s Take
The fact that it is this easy for Apple and this painless for many users only adds weight to my argument that the company should be responsible for this age check and then simply confirm to developers that the user has been verified as an adult.
Forcing users to hand over government photo ID and video selfies to an endless array of developers is a privacy nightmare. I’d far rather trust Apple to verify identity and age once, and then simply block downloads of age-inappropriate apps.
It would also be a way better user experience if each of us only had to verify our age one time, rather than every single time we downloaded a new age-gated app.
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