Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether digital ID will become an approved method of age assurance to comply with age checks required by the Online Safety Act 2023.

The Online Safety Act requires in-scope services to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing harmful content online. It is up to Ofcom as the regulator to determine whether or not an age assurance process is deemed ‘highly effective’ but it does not mandate specific technologies.

Ofcom’s guidance sets out a non-exhaustive list of age assurance technologies that could constitute highly effective age assurance. This list includes digital identity services. Whilst the government expects digital identity to be increasingly popular, there will remain a number of routes through which an individual can assure their age.