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Reddit users in the United Kingdom are now required to verify their age<\/a> as a way to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new requirement comes after the U.K.\u2019s Online Safety Act (OSA) introduced new steps for platforms to take to block children from encountering harmful content, like pornography and material promoting self-harm.<\/p>\n Reddit will use the third-party service Persona to confirm a user\u2019s age, necessitating users to submit a picture of their government-issued identity documents or take a selfie. Reddit said it will not have access to these images, and will only save the person\u2019s verification status and their date of birth.<\/p>\n Restricted content<\/a> to be hidden from users under 18 includes sexually explicit posts, anything that encourages suicide and disordered eating, and posts that spread hate against other people based on their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and gender, among other violent and harmful content.<\/p>\n Critics have long warned of the security and privacy risks<\/a> associated with private companies collecting and storing large amounts of people\u2019s identity documents.<\/p>\n