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Dec 26, 2025

How online age-gating laws went mainstream this year

About 25 states passed laws that bar minors from certain online activities this year, mainly through age verification requirements on certain sites.

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This week, we’re looking back at some of the tech trends that went mainstream this year. Today: age verification laws, which require users to prove their age before using a website.

About half of U.S. states now require this step to prevent kids from accessing certain content — usually pornography. But in some cases, that also means broader categories of adult content that include social media. Drew Harwell, tech reporter at The Washington Post, has been following this.

More on this

“‘Scan your face’ laws for the web are having unexpected consequences” from The Washington Post

The Team

How online age-gating laws went mainstream this year