You might be familiar with the process of verifying your age in the UK. There's no shame in that. Age verification is hardly limited to just those sorts of sites—it turns out all manner of content is now age-gated, including information on health topics surrounding addiction. Even Xbox is rolling it out. You don't have to be looking at extremely naughty adult content to get hit with a request to verify your age. But even if you're a good, rule-abiding adult looking to quickly verify your age and move on with your life, you should still be cautious as to the data you share and who you share it with.
Don't just take my word for it. Ofcom, the UK's regulator in charge of keeping watch for compliance with the Online Services Act 2023, has said of the handing over of age verification data: "you should exercise a degree of caution and judgement when giving over personal information."
