Online Safety Act: Age Verification And Data Reuse

Public debate around the UK's Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) has intensified since its age verification provisions came into effect in July 2025. Critics have warned that the Act could create a new pipeline for collecting valuable personal data, which technology platform companies and service providers might then monetise and reuse.

Without a doubt, the risk of reuse is conceivable especially where data collected during age verification is used to build advertising profiles, sell identity datasets, or fuel commercial analytics. Also, it appears that the UK Online Safety Act, does not directly regulate how age verification data can be reused. This is understandable as its scope is about requiring proof of age for certain content, not setting the privacy standards for processing age verification data.