What is the Age 18+ United Kingdom claim type?
Age 18+ United Kingdom evaluates whether a user meets an 18+ threshold using highly effective methods informed by Ofcom guidance for the Online Safety Act. Facial age estimation for this claim type is certified to strong technical accuracy standards (ACCS 1:2020 Level 3), and document-based verification with a live-bound selfie is also supported.
Use it when you are gating an experience for users in the United Kingdom. It covers the broadest set of use cases of any claim type in Relay.
Where you might use it
The use cases below are examples of where this claim type may be a fit:
- Social platforms
- Creator communities and user-generated content
- Mature search results and feeds
- Multiplayer gaming
- Age-restricted commerce and marketplaces
- Mature content
- Messaging and user-to-user interactions
How the claim is evaluated
This claim type supports two methods:
- Facial age estimation. Checks whether a user meets your age threshold by capturing a selfie and estimating their age.
- Document with selfie. Confirms a user’s age from their government ID, matched to a live-bound selfie to make sure it’s really them.
Relay runs the verification flow and determines which supported method to use for a given session. You do not select the method yourself, because the choice is part of what the claim type encodes. Persona tunes how each method is applied for the United Kingdom rather than using one generic configuration everywhere. The underlying thresholds and model configuration are part of Persona’s implementation and are not published.
When you redeem the result, the payload reports which method produced it, either facial_age_estimation or document_selfie. It is worth storing that alongside the result for your records.
Where do you find it in the Dashboard?
Navigate to the Dashboard and click on Relay > Claim Types. Age 18+ United Kingdom is listed under Age, and you can copy its ID directly from the table.
Relay runs inside your own product, so there is nothing to configure on this page and no verification records to review. Pass the ID from your integration when you create a Relay session, then store the claim result you get back. See Integrating Relay.
You can also see Relay running in the public demo at explore.withpersona.com/relay.
A note on age assurance and compliance
Age assurance requirements vary by jurisdiction and use case. While Persona’s claim types are informed by regulatory guidance, standards, and industry best practices, your organization is responsible for determining how to implement age verification in a way that meets applicable laws and requirements. You should evaluate your use of Relay as part of your broader compliance strategy. Relay is built to be a useful part of that larger process rather than the whole of it. It gives you an assurance signal at the point of access, while the surrounding policy, record keeping, and enforcement decisions stay with you.
Persona Atlas tracks age assurance regulations across markets if you are working out what applies where.
Plans Explained
Age 18+ United Kingdom Claim Type by plan
| Startup Program | Essential Plan | Growth Plan | Enterprise Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age 18+ United Kingdom Claim Type | Available | Available | Available | Available |