With the internet playing an increasingly prominent role in the lives of children, it is perhaps unsurprising that regulators across the globe have been focusing their efforts on how best to keep children safe as they enter and engage with online spaces. In many jurisdictions, platforms now have a duty to ensure that children have age-appropriate experiences online. Traditionally, platforms have tried to achieve this aim by gating off certain content or features on their sites unless an individual can prove they are old enough to engage with that content.

However, complying with a legislator’s demands that children should be prevented from accessing adult content and services, involves platforms knowing who is considered to be a child by the jurisdiction in which they wish to operate. This may be simple enough if a platform only plans to provide services in one jurisdiction, but for platforms that want to operate on a global scale, keeping an accurate record of the age at which an individual is considered an adult across multiple jurisdictions is a much bigger and more complicated undertaking.