UK users- Age Verification Gone wrong!

General guidance is that if you are age verified the request to age verify will disappear. It appears you have that but you are still concerned. Next you could try downloading an age restricted app and see if the App Store lets you. If it does, then age verification is at least working for that. If it doesn't and asks you to age verify again or tells you that you cannot download the app due to age restrictions then it apparently isn't working. Next you can go to Apple's privacy information pages and request a download of all (or just the relevant parts) of the data Apple has on your account. Buried within that will be the indication of what age category Apple has placed your account in. Once you have accomplished those tasks, if you still have concerns or problems, contact Apple Support, explain the issue, and ask for help.

Age requirements for managing an Apple Account in the UK - Apple Support

This wasn’t sprung on you without warning. The U.K. passed laws requiring this and it has been in the news a long time. Contact your PM if you want to complain to someone.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

But as others have correctly pointed out, Apple was simply following the law as your Government mandated they do. You can complain to Apple, but it will be a total waste of your time. You should complain to your elected officials.

That's incorrect. The law is that restricted content is not to be accessed by under 18s. The law does not tell Apple, or anyone, how to implement it. OFCOM has documentation which suggests methods and goes into some detail about success rates, and such. Their documentation suggests:

These methods include:

• Facial age estimation – you show your face via photo or video, and technology analyses it to estimate your age. 
• Open banking – you give permission for the age-check service to securely access information from your bank about whether you are over 18. The age-check service then confirms this with the site or app.
• Digital identity services – these include digital identity wallets, which can securely store and share information which proves your age in a digital format.
• Credit card age checks – you provide your credit card details and a payment processor checks if the card is valid. As you must be over 18 to obtain a credit card this shows you are over 18.
• Email-based age estimation – you provide your email address, and technology analyses other online services where it has been used – such as banking or utility providers - to estimate your age.  
• Mobile network operator age checks – you give your permission for an age-check service to confirm whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it. If there are no restrictions, this confirms you are over 18. 
• Photo-ID matching – this is similar to a check when you show a document. For example, you upload an image of a document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time – these are compared to confirm if the document is yours. 

Apple, for some reason, chose only credit cards, time of first account registration date and a bunch of ID documents most of which Brits have never heard of (but excluded passports). This was a huge problem during beta testing, as witnessed on these boards, but Apple also took no notice and went ahead with something which, strictly speaking, isn't even necessary. The law requires restricting access to restricted content, but Apple's approach blocks users from from making phone calls, checking their calendar and taking a photo without first proving they are over 18. Complaining to Apple would be the correct thing to do.

Zurarczurx wrote:

lobsterghost1 wrote:

But as others have correctly pointed out, Apple was simply following the law as your Government mandated they do. You can complain to Apple, but it will be a total waste of your time. You should complain to your elected officials.

That's incorrect. The law is that restricted content is not to be accessed by under 18s. The law does not tell Apple, or anyone, how to implement it. OFCOM has documentation which suggests methods and goes into some detail about success rates, and such. Their documentation suggests:

These methods include:

• Facial age estimation – you show your face via photo or video, and technology analyses it to estimate your age. 

• Open banking – you give permission for the age-check service to securely access information from your bank about whether you are over 18. The age-check service then confirms this with the site or app.

• Digital identity services – these include digital identity wallets, which can securely store and share information which proves your age in a digital format.

• Credit card age checks – you provide your credit card details and a payment processor checks if the card is valid. As you must be over 18 to obtain a credit card this shows you are over 18.

• Email-based age estimation – you provide your email address, and technology analyses other online services where it has been used – such as banking or utility providers - to estimate your age.  

• Mobile network operator age checks – you give your permission for an age-check service to confirm whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it. If there are no restrictions, this confirms you are over 18. 

• Photo-ID matching – this is similar to a check when you show a document. For example, you upload an image of a document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time – these are compared to confirm if the document is yours. 

Apple, for some reason, chose only credit cards, time of first account registration date and a bunch of ID documents most of which Brits have never heard of (but excluded passports). This was a huge problem during beta testing, as witnessed on these boards, but Apple also took no notice and went ahead with something which, strictly speaking, isn't even necessary. The law requires restricting access to restricted content, but Apple's approach blocks users from from making phone calls, checking their calendar and taking a photo without first proving they are over 18. Complaining to Apple would be the correct thing to do.

Nope. I'm not incorrect. You're not necessarily correct or incorrect. IdrisSeabright is correct that the law is vague and my belief is the UK Government implemented a law, without any consideration as to how sellers, like Apple would implement it. I can see and understand why Apple would not use facial recognition as a means of verifying someones age. I've seen teenagers who are quite young, but look far more mature than their age is. Apple could be subject to massive fines if a photo or facial ID was used, which somehow permitted someone under 18 access to inappropriate content. And Apple, who is extremely concerned about user security, would hardly want to partner with a 3rd party for facial recognition.

Apple-User-uk-0001 wrote:

Indeed I am, but it seems many MPs don’t really understand the impact on legitimate, adult users. And I haven’t seen any law mandating it done at the device level - although that’s the obvious and easy way for Apple to step in, help users to do this. We all want children to be safe, but having things inadvertently set or defaulted as child when they’re not isn’t helpful either.

I suspect Apple have done this the best way they can, but the messaging at the time and afterwards when problems came up were not explicit enough for me to find an easy fix, and to help,other users too.,.

if I couldn’t even make calls, its reasonable to tell the user why and how to fix it (precisely which setting got inadvertently changed and where or had suddenly became an issue)?

I still can’t see how to CHECK, after verifying, what age APPLE think I am.

There’s nothing explicit to say ‘user over - or under-18 in settings?

Likewise elsewhere- a message - ‘this service or website is being blocked because we detect a VPN’ is useful (& dismaying!) information- but just twirling away or a message that it’s ’unavailable‘ isn’t really helpful?

We didn’t really have these problems until recently.

it all feels as thought 26.4 was rushed (& 26.4.1 is still not syncing properly, but that’s another thread).

I will, try and ring Apple, but thanks for responding , it’s appreciated.

Now I know there’s no Apple Customer Support team in here ??) - but I rather thought there would be.

Point of clarification and confirmation. It isn't at the device level, so you're correct in that regard. But iPhone's are devices which access services and applications, so those applications and services are accessed via a device. I'm sure you can understand that, right?

I also agree you can even provided a way to share your thoughts with Apple. But as others have correctly pointed out, Apple was simply following the law as your Government mandated they do. You can complain to Apple, but it will be a total waste of your time. You should complain to your elected officials.

You have read this, haven't you --> Age requirements for managing an Apple Account in the UK - Apple Support

As you can see, Apple did address the age requirement verification and what documents suffice.

It was present in the beta versions of the OS, it was reported in the tech press before it was issued and the ID issues came up in dozens of posts on these boards during beta evaluations. If you want to be informed about what might be coming then you could sign up for beta releases. Alternatively you could do what I do, which is to wait a bit before updating to see whether there are any changes that you don't want. I haven't updated to Tahoe on my Mac because I don't like the look of it or the way some apps have changed.

As for "answering the question"; no one here can because we are users, not Apple employees. The legal requirement is only to know if someone is aged under 18 so that they cannot access age-restricted content. I imagine that the only information that's passed is whether the user is under 18 or not, but that's just me guessing. If you want to know then ask Apple because no one here can give you an answer. There's a support link at the bottom LHS of this page.

Allan Jones wrote:

+1 on Kilted Tim's response. A bunch of MPs pass legislation without knowing what verification is and is not possible/feasible in the tech world and you blame Apple for following a legal requirement your elected representatives cooked up?

When the next election cycle comes around, remember this "fouling of the footpath" when some candidate puffs up like a rooster looking for a date and brags about passing legislation to "protect our children from the internet." Good idea—bad execution.

Write your MP.

That's not really what happened. OFCOM put out detailed document including methods for age checking including, for example, photo-id matching, mobile phone contracts and email age-based verification, some of which are used by other companies - Microsoft uses photo ID for access to X-Box. Apple chose a very restrictive subset of these and even when those issues surfaced during beta testing they didn't broaden the options to reduce the impact on their users. Bad execution, certainly, but not only on the part of UK gov.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/age-checks-for-online-safety--what-you-need-to-know-as-a-user

Zurarczurx wrote:

lobsterghost1 wrote:

But as others have correctly pointed out, Apple was simply following the law as your Government mandated they do. You can complain to Apple, but it will be a total waste of your time. You should complain to your elected officials.

That's incorrect. The law is that restricted content is not to be accessed by under 18s. The law does not tell Apple, or anyone, how to implement it. OFCOM has documentation which suggests methods and goes into some detail about success rates, and such. Their documentation suggests:

No, the law is intentionally vague, leaving it to the company to determine what is sufficiently "robust" and to face the consequences (huge fines) if the government decides they didn't get it right. So, hardly surprising Apple would err on the side of caution.

Also, face-age estimation requires the use of a third-party. That's another big can of privacy worms I can see Apple wanting to avoid.

Apple-User-uk-0001 wrote:

That answer totally avoids the question. There’s been a lot of external comment about this being sprung on users.

whilst H VERIFICATION HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND BEN IN THE NEWS, THERE WAS NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO TELL USERS THE NEXT UPDATE OF THE iOS OPERATING SYSTEM SYSTEMS FROM APPLE WOULD INCLUDE A MANDATORY REQUIREMENT TO VERIFY OUR AGE AND THE MANNER WHICH IT WAS DONE. PARTICULARLY WHEN SOMEBODY IS SETTING IT UP TO INSTALL OVERNIGHT. HAVE OTHER ARRANGEMENTS. THIS WAS A TOTAL SURPRISE FROM APPLE AND APPLE COULD’VE WARNED USERS THAT THIS WAS COMING AND WHAT THE FULL IMPLICATIONS WOULD BE AND HOW IT WOULD WORK BEFORE FORCING IT ON USERS IN AN UPGRADE. AND BY THE WAY N.M.O UPDATES TEND TO BE SECURITY UPDATES. THIS AGAIN HAS SURPRISE MANY USERS. SO COULD YOU PLEASE JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION THANK YOU.

SORRY FOR THE CAPITALISATION. I DON’T KNOW WHY DICTATION’S DONE THAT AND I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT.

You do understand this forum is user to user only, right? Apple isn't here and won't see your rant about this. As users, we can't, nor do we speak for Apple. It was widely reported in just about every news source in the UK of the age verification requirement. If you want to complain to Apple about how this was rolled out, feel free to do that using this link --> Product Feedback - Apple

Complaining about it here on a user to user forum, where no one from Apple participates nor will read for user feedback is a waste of time.

+1 on Kilted Tim's response. A bunch of MPs pass legislation without knowing what verification is and is not possible/feasible in the tech world and you blame Apple for following a legal requirement your elected representatives cooked up?

When the next election cycle comes around, remember this "fouling of the footpath" when some candidate puffs up like a rooster looking for a date and brags about passing legislation to "protect our children from the internet." Good idea—bad execution.

Write your MP.

You continue to argue about things that Apple should do.

This is a user-to-user site. We are all users here.....just like you. Apple is not here. Even if they were, they will never reply on this site.

Telling other users what you think Apple should do will accomplish nothing here.

Rant all you want, but don't expect any action from your rants on this site.