Age Assurance: What Ofcom and ICO’s Updated Guidance Means for Digital Safeguarding

Children are being protected, but at what cost to privacy, and who’s responsible for getting it right?

That’s the real question behind the latest update from Ofcom and the Information Commissioner's Office on age assurance.

The regulators are now more closely aligned than ever, sending a clear signal to platforms, schools and organisations: you can no longer choose between safety and privacy - you have to deliver both.

What’s actually changed (and why it matters)

Age assurance is moving from:

👉 “nice to have” to 👉 “prove you’re doing it properly”

In practice, organisations are now expected to:

• Take real steps to prevent underage access

• Be able to justify how they assess age

• Avoid overly intrusive methods that compromise privacy

• Show they are actively balancing risk vs rights

That balance is where things get complicated, because poorly implemented age checks can:

• push young people to unsafe workarounds

• collect unnecessary personal data

• erode trust in platforms and institutions

imabi’s View: bridging the gap is practice (not policy)

Most organisations don’t lack intent, but they lack clarity and confidence in what “good” actually looks like.

Right now, many are caught between:

• fear of non-compliance

• fear of getting privacy wrong

• uncertainty about what’s proportionate

This is where digital safeguarding often falls down - not because people don’t care, but because systems are either:

• too complex

• too reactive

• disconnected from real-world behaviour

At imabi, we focus on making safeguarding usable.

That means:

• giving organisations clear ways to communicate expectations

• helping people raise concerns early (before escalation)

• connecting users to trusted support without friction

What “age assurance” really means now

👉 Can you protect young people without over-collecting their data?

👉 Can you show your approach is proportionate and thought through?

👉 Can people engage with your systems without fear or confusion?

If the answer is no that’s your risk.

Source: Ofcom, March, 2026