Age Verification iOS 26.4 in the UK

Curious do they not provide ID for those who are blind or disable who are not able to drive? Here in the US, we got State ID. Can you get your passport?

On our state IDs, we can also get a little, "visually impaired", label put on them, I think it goes under the portrait if I'm not mistaken. Sort of like a little banner at the bottom.

Whenever I need to verify my age on online platforms, I will always use my parents' identification, whether that's their credit card, etc.

In the UK, Apple also accepts certain proof of age cards, according to this support note: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/126788

Quote: "You can confirm your age with a credit card, or by scanning a driver’s licence or one of the following PASS-accredited Proof of Age cards: CitizenCard, My ID Card, TOTUM ID card or Young Scot National Entitlement Card. If you already have an Apple Account, Apple will check if you have a credit card on file or other eligible methods available to confirm that you’re 18 or older."

We do not have any form of national ID or disabled photo ID. Since 75 percent of even working age VI people in the UK are not working, most of us actually cannot get credit cards, whether we want to or not. Therefore, unless we have had our accounts long enough, verifiation is impossible for us, yes, actually impossible, and it could probably be argued to be a breach of the equalities act because of the unemployment rate of VI people. Passports are specifically excluded, and apparently so is voter ID. Apple have, sadly, lost my trust and credibility over this, they are going to have to earn it back, and that is going to be hard. As things stand, Apple won't be able to have blind customers in the UK any more. Oh, and asking parents to let us use their ID? Well, that failes either if the parents themselves use it for anything Apple related, and/or if they don't like registering their credit cards online, which applies to many older people in the UK. This is honestly the most discriminatory thing Apple have ever done, since they removed screen reading from Mac OS, which was like 30 years ago. Granted, they probably do not realise our situation, and have been following government advice, but even so, it discriminates against us due to the cercumstances of VI people. For me, i believe I will be able to verify in a couple of years, because of when I got my Apple account, but that will be no help if I actually have to verify for some reason. For me, this means no upgrades, no security fixes, for the forseeable future, until I can verify what I would lose access to at least. Ramblio is an over 18 app, so I suspect that would have to go, and other messaging platforms might end up very restricted too. We are potentially extremely isolated by all this, and much less safe. The new UK laws have good intent, but they are implemented in some very harmful ways.

My phone just did an update overnight and I woke up to my phone. It did a kind of restart and I thought "oh my God" it hasn't deleted everything? Well, the phone said "hello" and asked me for age verification. It wasn't taking any of my debit cards. I don't own a credit card cause I don't need credit cards to live. I don't borrow like that, so I choose not to use a credit card, it's absolutely insane that my phone would not let me in! The face verification kept failing, and I had to get my old phone out, my iPhone 14 cause I thought I was gonna be locked out of my phone forever, I went into a panic. I've just paid 1800 quid for this phone and the thought of not being able to use it because the phone, let's be honest it's glitchy AF, it has serious bugs and it's got bad attitude. I got really worried, but, I haven't been able to do age verification on my phone, so disappointing, and it scared me for nothing. I thought I wasn't gonna be able to get into the phone and it scared me for nothing. I've got serious health issues like asthma. I need a phone. I don't have a house phone, imagine I didn't have a spare phone here, it would be awful. This is such a nice phone, but it has let it down. The camera is lovely. The graphics are amazing but the phone stalls, the phone freezes, and it's annoying as hell!!

Now that age verification is spreading all over the world with all its privacy implications, it's better to take action and get involved with Electronic Frontier Foundation, who's fighting against this invasive privacy violation for years.

https://www.eff.org/issues/age-verification

On their page about this, blind people issues are not specified. We must all take action and pose them our problems, or we'll never be listened to, we can't remain silent and accept everything passively.

If it asks for age verification, you can just skip it. I believe it then can be done later from Settings (at the top).

I didn't have to do this as I do have a credit card on my Apple account.

But just to be clear, it will not stop you using your phone, but certain unspecified age restricted things may not be available.

I think if you are in the position of being unable to prove your age all you can do is contact Apple support and maybe there's something else that can be done. I think this is very early doors, and they are just responding to legislation, so hopefully the process will be improved soon. I don't know if there is some kind of manual override which would allow someone at Apple to verify it outside the app.

In this case I believe is more about the law that the UK pass. Apple only is following the UK requirements about this. I am sure is frustrating and upsetting for those of you who are dealing with it, I get upset with VO and notification but that is around for more than a year. However we can not blame apple for the age verification. I am sure it will come to the US State by State. Specially from those who want to control what we watch, listen and read. LLC.

I've said this on another thread but in all seriousness, do not use the ID of somebody else, with or without their consent. In the UK, to do this amounts to fraud by false representation under the Fraud Act 2006, which is a serious criminal offence. Please also have a good think before you make suggestions like this - we shouldn't be encouraging underage people to bypass the law by committing fraud or other offences, whatever we might think of that law ourselves.

I suggested in another thread that you should apply for a credit card if you can get one. I must admit I hadn't factored in the unemployment situation, which I can see would make that difficult. all I can suggest is writing to your local MP or visiting their surgery to try and illustrate the problem to them.

Wow I agree with Bingo. Avoid the future headache that will create. Notice that I say "will". LLC.

I do not feel that this is a significant issue. After all, I am not saying that you should use someone else's ID, such as a friend's or a random stranger's; I am just saying that you should use your family member's ID.

I don't see that being a significant barrier as we are related to our family, after all. In fact, I sometimes share an account with my family because they might have more loyalty points, etc., and there is no point in me creating a separate account for myself which i will barely use.

I am curious from the legal point of view. Do we have a lawyer from the UK can address this? I think doing so in the US is not. LLC.

A lawyer or at least lectures in law and I suspect even family members would still come under the same fraud laws. I am not a lawyer though!

I am a barrister, that is to say, a trial attorney when translated into american English. I also lecture in law.

Whether you see something as a significant issue or not is immaterial: doing what appleFan is doing to get round age verification would amount to fraud by false representation in english law. Note I say English, in acknowledgement that Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems of criminal law. after all, some folk don't see murder as a significant issue, but it's still a criminal offence.

Fraud by false representation occurs when you make a representation of fact that is either untrue or misleading, knowing it to be false, dishonestly, and with an intention to make a gain or cause a loss in money or other property. Making a gain or causing a loss includes keeping what one otherwise would not keep. You don't actually have to make a gain or cause a loss in fraud; you just have to intend to. Being over 18 allows you potentially to make financial gains you could not make were you under 18, so you're caught.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's actually very sad and disturbing that the UK is becoming a nanny state. In fact, even the EU is going that route. Oh, and I see with the recent judgement against Apple and google regarding a lady who claimed their products caused harm to her, America is just going the same route.
This requirement is encouraging people to behave fraudulently..

However the fact that you can’t even use a passport, which is the main form of ID most of us could easily get access to is absurd. I too have looked into getting a credit card, but that’s not currently possible because I can’t get approved.

I’m having the same issue and I’m going to apply for a citizen card as I need a form of ID anyway. Once I have the card and have tried to verify my age with it, I will let you know if it was an easy process and if I was successful. For anyone who is interested as citizen card costs £18.

I have students in my class who have none of the required ID’s to prove they are over 28 years, the vast majority of them have no passports, definitely no driving licence, and no credit card. Will they now not be able to use apps which they have taken so long to acquire the skills to use. Come on Apple, they have invested a lot of their income to help themselves. Someone, somewhere must come up with a solution to this issue. This is making life for them, even more difficult.