Mumsnet: age checks in the UK

No active age check was found as of 18 October 2026. Mumsnet’s Terms of Use (updated and published 22 July 2025), section 6 “Our commitment to illegal content moderation and child safety”: “Mumsnet is intended for use by individuals aged 18 and over only.” Section 3: “Although Mumsnet and Gransnet are intended for people aged 18 and over, we have a policy for handling the exceptional circumstance in which a parent or other person with parental responsibility requests information about a deceased child’s use of one of our services.” Mumsnet’s privacy policy, “Children and minors”: “Mumsnet is designed for use by adults. Our services are intended for individuals aged 18 years and over. We do not knowingly collect, store, or process personal information from anyone under 18. By creating an account or using our services, you confirm that you are aged 18 or over.” On registration: “If you choose to register to use a Mumsnet product we ask for your email address so that we can create an account for you and check you’re a real person (to prevent ‘bots’ signing up).” and “Registration data: facts about you that you choose to provide in the sign-up process, such as your date of birth, sex, whether you are pregnant, whether you have children, their ages and sex … Provision of this data is optional; you can skip this stage.” A Mumsnet staff (MNHQ) reply in the Site Stuff thread “Online Safety Act and Mumsnet” (31 July 2025): “Yes, Mumsnet is covered by the Online Safety Act, and we take our responsibilities under it very seriously. We've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure we’re meeting the requirements, including updating our Terms of Service and our moderation processes.” “With regards to the Child Safety Codes (which includes the regulations around age verification), they only apply to sites that are likely to be accessed by children (or sites that host the most potentially harmful content for children - for example porn sites). The Ofcom guidance makes it clear that Mumsnet doesn’t fall into that category – we’re very much aimed at adults, our T&Cs clearly say the site is for over-18s, and we’re not designed in a way that’s likely to attract younger users.” None of the pages read describes a check of a user’s age or names an age-assurance provider. Mumsnet’s stated position (staff reply of 31 July 2025) is that the Online Safety Act applies to it but the Child Safety Codes, including their age-check rules, do not, because it is not likely to be accessed by children. No Ofcom page read names Mumsnet.

No face-scan method is recorded. Mumsnet’s stated position (staff reply of 31 July 2025) is that the Online Safety Act applies to it but the Child Safety Codes, including their age-check rules, do not, because it is not likely to be accessed by children. No Ofcom page read names Mumsnet.

No active verification method is recorded for Mumsnet. This does not establish that the service collects no age-related data; account-based inference may involve existing information. Mumsnet’s stated position (staff reply of 31 July 2025) is that the Online Safety Act applies to it but the Child Safety Codes, including their age-check rules, do not, because it is not likely to be accessed by children. No Ofcom page read names Mumsnet.

This site records what the service publishes; it does not troubleshoot or offer workarounds. Mumsnet's own help page is https://www.mumsnet.com/info/terms-of-use. Mumsnet’s stated position (staff reply of 31 July 2025) is that the Online Safety Act applies to it but the Child Safety Codes, including their age-check rules, do not, because it is not likely to be accessed by children. No Ofcom page read names Mumsnet.