Redazione RHC : 28 July 2025 11:44
Telegram has introduced an official bot designed to verify users’ ages by scanning their faces. As Code Durov points out, the feature is available in the UK, where legislation requires online platforms to confirm whether a user is of legal age. Verification is required to access adult content. The bot’s description reads: “No images or data will ever leave your device or reach our servers.”
The new requirements came into force in the UK on July 25. Since that day, authorities have required online services to protect younger audiences from harmful content, including resources containing information about self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, and pornographic sites. The changes to the law also aim to protect minors from bullying, propaganda, and offensive materials online.
Platforms that publish “adult” content are now required to verify the age of their audience. Non-compliance can result in a fine of up to £18 million or up to 10% of the company’s annual turnover. Age verification must be performed using facial recognition technology or other reliable methods, such as credit card verification.
According to the BBC, approximately 6,000 porn sites have already started carrying out such checks. Similar measures are being introduced by other platforms, including Reddit, Discord, and dating apps.
We’ve previously reported how platforms like PornHub and YouPorn have moved ahead of the curve to comply with these new regulations, introducing age verification systems to protect themselves from millions of dollars in fines.
Telegram, however, is a special case: in addition to being used by millions of users for traditional messaging, it also hosts numerous pornographic channels run by creators who sell their images directly within the social network. This makes the issue even more delicate, because we’re talking about a platform that is enormously popular and that, until now, had never adopted an official system for controlling adult content.
The debut of the new official age verification bot is therefore an important signal: Telegram is attempting to adapt to increasingly stringent regulations, but it remains to be seen whether these measures will truly be sufficient to regulate such a widespread and difficult-to-control phenomenon.
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