Part of Bluesky’s mission to create a more open and decentralized social web is helping users feel safe and in control of their experience. We always try to balance safety with privacy, and free expression with civility.
To achieve our mission, we also work with governments around the world. In the UK, the Online Safety Act requires that online platforms take specific steps to reduce the risk of children seeing harmful content. Since certain parts of that act come into effect later this month, we’re making some changes for people in the UK.
We’ll use Epic Games’
Kids Web Services (KWS) to give our UK community choices about how to verify their age. If you’re in the UK, you can choose between
methods like payment card verification, ID scans, and face scans. (See
here to learn more about how KWS safeguards user information.) For people who are under 18 or don’t want to go through this process, we’ll make adult-appropriate content inaccessible, and we’ll disable features like direct messaging.
If you’re in the UK, you’ll see a notification on our platform when this update takes effect, and a way to report unwanted content:
Users in the UK will see notices of age requirements, and instructions for completing age verification.
Users can report content through flows like the one pictured.
In addition to these updates, we’ll continue to look at how we’re doing toshield children from unwanted content, and how we can improve.
