Facial age estimation (face scan)

Bluesky’s post names face scans through KWS. KWS’s developer page: “KWS prompts the user to hold their device’s camera in front of their face, and a machine-learning algorithm estimates their age.” and “Yoti (yoti.com) provides face scan verification.” Face scan is listed as unavailable in the United States and the Republic of Korea. Press (Biometric Update, July 2025) also reported Yoti inside KWS.

Character.AI’s data page: “Character.AI does not collect or store any personal data submitted during age verification. All submissions are handled entirely by Persona, our trusted third-party identity assurance partner.” “Most users will only need to complete a selfie — no ID required.” Its FAQ: “Our service provider Persona processes your information to verify your age, identify fraud, and for quality assurance. Any biometric information is deleted within seven (7) days.” Its troubleshooting page (11 September 2026): “Your selfie must show your real, natural appearance”; verification can be completed on any device by scanning a QR code.

Live selfie taken with a phone or webcam. OpenAI's page: “OpenAI does not receive your ID or selfie. OpenAI only receives your date of birth or an age prediction.”

Discord’s page: “What’s actually available to you depends on factors such as your region or device, so the options below may not be the same for everyone.”

Discord’s “Before You Start” section: “Facial age estimation happens on your device. Processing happens entirely on your device and your selfie is not shared with Discord or our vendors.”

EA: “In some countries, an age check is required to access certain content.” Brazil is the only country EA names.

EA’s page describes a “low-friction (like facial scan)” method that may be replaced by “a high-friction method (like uploading ID)” when “your previous attempt couldn’t confirm your age”. No further description of the facial scan and no retention period are published, so the absence line applies.

Listed by KWS as available outside the US and South Korea; Epic’s own help page for adults correcting a date of birth does not list methods.

Kids Web Services’ developer page: “Face scan is available worldwide, except in the United States and the Republic of Korea.” “KWS prompts the user to hold their device’s camera in front of their face, and a machine-learning algorithm estimates their age.” “Yoti (yoti.com) provides face scan verification.” Epic’s Australia page says of the same route: “This photo is encrypted, never seen by a human and is deleted by Yoti immediately after estimation. KWS does not receive your selfie.” That statement is made for Australia; no UK equivalent was found, so no retention is recorded here.

Facebook’s UK Help Centre lists the route without naming countries; no Meta page read states when it reached UK accounts.

Facebook’s video-selfie page names “vendors” rather than Yoti: “If you choose to take a video selfie, we partner with vendors who use technology to estimate your age. After you've taken a video selfie, we'll share an image from that selfie with the vendor. Our vendors' technology only estimates age. It can't identify specific people.” Its “Confirming your age on Facebook” page names Yoti: “With Yoti, you can verify your age on Facebook by taking a video selfie or uploading your ID.” Meta’s 5 December 2022 post on Facebook Dating (US): “After you take a video selfie, we share a still image from the video with Yoti and nothing else. Yoti’s technology estimates your age based on your facial features, shares that estimate with us and the image is then deleted immediately.” Facebook’s page: “It can take up to 20 minutes to verify your age.”

Feeld’s article: “With this option, you’ll take a live selfie with your device. The selfie is then analyzed in real time by our age verification partner using a facial analysis algorithm to determine your approximate age.” Feeld’s privacy policy: “Feeld will collect and process your facial biometric data and cellular mobile network operator data through a trusted third party (Yoti)”. Feeld’s terms describe Yoti as providing “age estimation facial recognition technology”; Yoti’s own notice says its estimation does not identify people (see the Yoti page).

Google’s page: “Not all options of age verification are available in all regions.”

Google’s page: “You should review the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy of Google’s partner that performs the verification, Private ID.” “When Private ID verifies your age, Google provides to Private ID only a random identifier for your Google Account. No other data associated with your account is shared.” and “You may see new verification method types we’re testing.”

Grindr’s page: “To protect your privacy, any documents and videos you provide are only used for age assurance, are securely encrypted during the process, and are permanently deleted once age assurance is complete. Grindr will not retain the documents or videos you provide. Grindr only retains information about which age assurance method you choose and whether you passed or failed.” Grindr says it “utilizes biometric verification technology from Facetec, while independently managing all data processing.”

Hinge’s page: Face Check scan “Applicable region(s): United Kingdom”. The EEA and Switzerland are on a video-selfie route and Australia and Brazil on a face-photo-upload route, each with the same three audit images.

Hinge’s page: “We capture and store three audit images- screenshots–from your video selfie, which are analyzed with automated technology to estimate whether or not you’re 18 or over.” and “Hinge will keep audit images and profile photos for the life of an account (plus the applicable retention period following account closure or ban)”. Hinge’s Face Check page (updated 29 July 2026): “Your video selfie is assessed to ensure that you are a real person, and is then promptly deleted.”; “FaceMaps and FaceVectors are retained for the lifetime of an account, and are deleted within 30 days of account closure”; the age estimate is “saved until 90 days after your account is closed (or 2 years if the account is banned)” and audit images “are kept for 90 days after account closure, or up to the duration of the account ban, if applicable”. “The technology used to estimate age is proprietary to Match Group.” Results “may be used to help train certain machine learning models that support our trust and safety tools”. If Hinge cannot confirm an age it completes “a manual review or request additional verification, such as an ID check”; if it determines a user is “most likely under 18”, “your account will be removed”.

Instagram’s page: “This feature is only available in some countries.” UK availability is from Meta’s October 2022 plan and a 7 November 2022 press report, not from a Meta page naming the UK.

Instagram’s video-selfie page names “vendors” rather than Yoti: “If you choose to take a video selfie, we partner with vendors who use technology to estimate your age. After you’ve taken a video selfie, we’ll share an image from that selfie with the vendor. Our vendors’ technology only estimates age. It can’t identify specific people.” Its “Confirming your age” page names Yoti: “We partner with Yoti, a third party age verification service, to confirm people’s ages on Instagram.” Meta’s 5 May 2026 newsroom post names “Yoti’s facial age estimation tools”. Meta’s 23 June 2022 post: “After you take a video selfie, we share the image with Yoti, and nothing else. Yoti’s technology estimates your age based on your facial features and shares that estimate with us. Meta and Yoti then delete the image.” Yoti’s own notice says it deletes the selfie as soon as an estimate is given (see the Yoti page). Instagram’s page: “It can take up to 20 minutes to verify your age.”

Availability varies by jurisdiction; the recorded FAQ does not confirm which methods UK viewers receive.

Kick’s own FAQ (dated 21 May 2026), re-read in a browser on 18 October 2026; wording unchanged.

Microsoft: “If you are in the United Kingdom, you can verify your age now by selecting the Verify your age button”; the options “vary by country and region”.

Microsoft’s FAQ (dated 24 August 2026): “Multiple age assurance options are available, provided by our partners Yoti and VerifyMe and include facial age estimation, and uploading a document.” Which partner handles which method is not stated. “Once completed, age verification applies to both your Microsoft account and XBOX account.” Minecraft’s own page names no vendor; it links to Microsoft’s UK age verification page. The Xbox record on this site covers the same account-level check.

Ofcom’s decision page: “The technology works by requiring a prospective user to upload a live selfie, which it then uses to estimate their age. If the tool estimates the prospective user’s age as being above the challenge age, they can continue to create an account on the OnlyFans platform. Any user not estimated to be above the challenge age is required to verify that they are over 18 via a secondary method.” Ofcom does not name the provider. Yoti’s own case-study page names OnlyFans with “Solution: Facial Age Estimation”. No retention wording from OnlyFans’ own pages.

Pinterest’s page: “To verify your age, you can either choose to take a photo of your government ID and a selfie, or only take a selfie. Bear in mind that you’ll need to allow access to your camera because you can’t upload a photo of yourself or your ID from your camera roll.” and “Only photos taken at the time of verification are accepted as it allows our verification partner to confirm that the documents are in your possession.” Pinterest’s privacy policy: age verification “may include facial age estimation”. The partner is not named on any Pinterest page read. No retention period is published.

Reddit receives only the estimated age. Reddit’s own page (updated 6 October 2026): “Reddit does not receive or store these photos; we only store your verified age and status. Persona deletes your information immediately after it’s processed.”

Press: "No images or data leave your device or reach our servers." A VPN-blog claim that Telegram stores the result plus metadata was not found on a Telegram page. Telegram’s developer documentation (read 18 October 2026) confirms the mechanism, “Telegram implements this through the Main Mini App of a special bot.”, and that the mini app may request camera access, but says nothing about on-device processing or retention. The press page cited for the on-device wording was unreachable (Cloudflare 522) on 18 October 2026, so the row’s check date was not advanced.

Threads’ page: “This feature is only available in some countries.”

Threads’ “Confirming your age” page: “We partner with Yoti, a third party age verification service, to confirm people’s ages on Threads.” and “With Yoti, you can verify your age on Threads by taking a video selfie or uploading your ID.” Its video-selfie page names “vendors”: “If you choose to take a video selfie, we partner with vendors who use technology to estimate your age. After you’ve taken a video selfie, we’ll share an image from that selfie with the vendor. Our vendors’ technology only estimates age. It can’t identify specific people.” “It can take up to 20 minutes to verify your age.” That page says the check applies “If you are under 16 and trying to change your age on Threads to over 16”.

Tinder’s page, under “Age Check: Face Photo Upload” with “Applicable Region(s): Australia, UK”: “Our automated technology analyzes your uploaded face photo(s) to estimate whether or not you’re 18 or over.” A Face Check video selfie is described as “rolling out” for new users in Australia, Brazil and the UK; it captures two audit images for age estimation. Retention: “Tinder will keep your audit images and photos for the life of the account (plus the applicable retention period following account closure or ban)”. “The technology used to estimate age is proprietary to Match Group.” Age-check results “may be used to help train certain machine learning models that support our trust and safety tools”. Press in February 2026 named FaceTec for liveness; Tinder’s page does not name FaceTec.

k-ID’s Twitch page (undated) describes on-device facial age estimation “in some regions” and names no in-app ID alternative; it says “If you believe your estimated age is incorrect, you can appeal through Twitch Support with proper age documentation”. The page does not name the UK or give rollout dates; those come from press.

X's own page: “Users can upload a live selfie, which will be used to estimate their age by our artificial intelligence systems.” X's own page names no vendor and gives no retention period. Press in July 2025 reported Persona and Au10tix deleting ID images, selfies and extracted data after 30 days, and named Stripe; X does not publish this.

Listed as “facial age estimation” on Microsoft’s age-assurance FAQ (24 August 2026).

Listed as “facial age estimation” on Microsoft’s current FAQ, which names Yoti and Verifymy as partners without saying which handles which method or region.

Google’s page names Private ID as “Google’s partner that performs the verification” and says Google gives Private ID “only a random identifier for your Google Account.” Private Identity LLC holds an ACCS age-estimation certificate (valid to 26 February 2027).