Age Requirements & Age Assurance

Media.com uses age requirements and age-assurance measures to help provide an appropriate experience for people of different ages and to comply with applicable law.

You must be at least 16 years old to create or maintain a Media.com account, unless a higher minimum age applies in your jurisdiction or to a particular Media.com service.

Being old enough to hold a Media.com account does not mean you are an adult.

For the purposes of Media.com's Youth Safety and adult-content protections, anyone under 18 is treated as a minor.

You may create or maintain a Media.com account if:

• you are at least 16 years old;
• you satisfy any higher minimum age that applies where you live or to the relevant service;
• you complete any age-assurance process Media.com reasonably requires; and
• you otherwise satisfy Media.com's account requirements.

Media.com may apply different legal requirements in different jurisdictions where required.

People under 16 must not create or maintain a Media.com account.

Where permitted by law and supported by Media.com, people under 16 may still access publicly available content without signing in.

They must not use another person's account or provide false information to circumvent Media.com's minimum-age requirements.

Users aged 16 or 17 may be permitted to hold a Media.com account where applicable law allows.

They remain minors for the purposes of Media.com's safety standards.

Additional protections or feature restrictions may apply, including restrictions relating to:

• adult sexual content;
• graphic or disturbing content;
• self-harm or other age-sensitive material;
• advertising;
• monetization;
• messaging or interaction features;
• payments;
• recommendation systems; or
• other functionality Media.com determines requires an adult user or additional safeguards.

Users who have been reasonably established as aged 18 or over may access features and content available to adults, subject to:

• applicable law;
• jurisdictional restrictions;
• account status;
• verification requirements;
• Media.com's Rules and Policies; and
• any other eligibility requirements.

Being 18 or over does not automatically make every feature or publication available.

Do not deliberately provide a false date of birth or other false age information.

Do not:

• use another person's identity to satisfy an age check;
• submit forged or manipulated evidence;
• use synthetic or AI-generated material to defeat age assurance;
• use another person's verified account;
• buy, sell or transfer an age-assured account to circumvent restrictions;
• misrepresent your location to evade age requirements; or
• otherwise attempt to defeat Media.com's age-assurance systems.

Such activity may also violate Media.com's Verification, Impersonation & Identity Abuse, Fraud & Criminal Activity or Account Integrity Rules.

Media.com may use one or more reasonable age-assurance methods.

Depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, these may include:

• a date-of-birth declaration;
• age estimation;
• age verification;
• verified identity information;
• an approved third-party age-assurance service;
• document-based checks where permitted;
• digital identity services where permitted;
• account or safety signals;
• device or location information where appropriate and lawful; or
• other privacy-conscious methods reasonably capable of establishing age or age range.

Media.com does not necessarily require every user to complete the same age check.

Some age-assurance methods may estimate whether a user is likely to fall above or below a particular age threshold rather than establish an exact date of birth.

Media.com may use an age-estimation outcome to determine whether:

• no further check is required;
• an additional age check is necessary;
• a feature should be restricted; or
• an account requires review.

Age estimation is not treated as infallible.

Media.com may offer government-issued identification as an age-assurance option where permitted by law.

Where applicable law requires reasonable alternatives to government identification, Media.com will provide an appropriate alternative.

Media.com should not require users to provide more identity information than is reasonably necessary for the applicable purpose.

Age assurance and identity verification serve different purposes.

Age assurance determines whether a person satisfies an applicable age threshold.

Identity verification establishes information about who a person is.

Completing one process does not necessarily mean that the other has been completed.

Where appropriate, Media.com may use an existing verified identity result to assist with age assurance without requiring the user to repeat unnecessary checks.

Passing an age check does not necessarily mean that Media.com will never review age again.

Media.com may require further age assurance where there is a reasonable basis to believe that:

• the original age result may have been incorrect;
• inaccurate or fraudulent information was supplied;
• the account may have changed hands;
• another person may be using the account;
• relevant account information has materially changed;
• safety signals indicate the user may be below the applicable age;
• applicable law requires another assessment; or
• another reasonable age-assurance concern arises.

Some content may require a user to be at least 18 or satisfy another applicable age threshold.

Media.com may restrict access to content involving matters such as:

• permitted adult nudity or sexual content;
• graphic or disturbing imagery;
• certain self-harm or suicide-related material;
• regulated products or services; or
• other age-sensitive content.

The applicable content Policy determines whether the content itself is allowed.

This Policy determines whether a particular user may access it.

Some Media.com features may be available only to users who satisfy additional age requirements.

These may include:

• monetization;
• payments;
• advertising;
• certain messaging functionality;
• commercial transactions;
• adult-content access; or
• other features subject to legal or safety restrictions.

Media.com may change feature-specific age requirements where reasonably necessary.

Media.com should collect and use age-assurance information in a privacy-conscious manner.

Where possible, Media.com should seek to establish only the information necessary for the relevant age decision.

For example, Media.com may need to know that a person is "16 or over" or "18 or over" without needing to display or retain their full date of birth publicly.

Age-assurance information is not displayed publicly merely because it was used to determine eligibility.

Media.com may use specialist providers to perform age-assurance checks.

Where a third-party provider is used, Media.com should explain the relevant process and handle information in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.

A third-party provider may communicate an age, age range, threshold result or other necessary outcome to Media.com without Media.com necessarily receiving the underlying identity evidence.

Where Media.com reasonably believes an account holder is below the applicable minimum age, it may:

• request further age assurance;
• temporarily restrict some or all account functionality;
• prevent new publishing or interaction;
• restrict access to age-sensitive content;
• deactivate the account; or
• take another measure reasonably required by applicable law.

Media.com should provide an appropriate review process for users who believe an age decision is incorrect.

Age-assurance technology can make mistakes.

If you are old enough to use Media.com but have been restricted because of an incorrect age decision, you may request a review.

Media.com may provide an alternative age-assurance method as part of that review.

Users may report an account they reasonably believe is being operated by someone below Media.com's minimum age.

A report does not itself establish that the person is underage.

Media.com may conduct an age-assurance review before taking action.

A parent or guardian cannot ordinarily waive a minimum age imposed by Media.com or applicable law simply by giving permission.

Where Media.com provides specific child, family or supervised services in the future, those services may have separate requirements.

A parent must not create an ordinary Media.com account in a child's name in order to bypass the minimum-age requirement.

Do not allow someone who does not satisfy Media.com's age requirements to use your account in order to access features or content they are not eligible to use.

Users remain responsible for protecting their account credentials.

Serious or deliberate assistance with age-restriction evasion may result in account action.

Being below Media.com's minimum account age is principally an eligibility issue, not misconduct.

Where Media.com determines that a user is genuinely underage, the normal response should be to restrict or deactivate the account rather than issue a Trust & Safety strike merely because of the person's age.

Fraudulent attempts to evade age requirements may be treated separately.

Where an account is deactivated because the user is underage, Media.com may provide appropriate options to access or export eligible account information where required or reasonably appropriate.

Some information may need to be retained or withheld where required by law, safety obligations or another legitimate reason.

A person who was previously ineligible because they were under 16 may create or reactivate an account after reaching the applicable minimum age, subject to:

• age assurance;
• verification requirements;
• applicable law; and
• Media.com's account rules.

Previous underage status should not by itself be treated as a permanent account violation.

When a user turns 18, Media.com may update age-dependent safeguards or eligibility.

Adult access is not necessarily automatic.

Media.com may require sufficient age assurance before enabling features or content restricted to adults.

Users may request review of eligible age-assurance decisions where they believe Media.com has incorrectly determined their eligibility.

Media.com may require another age-assurance method to complete the review.

For more information, see Appealing a Media.com Decision.

These Rules should be read together with:

• Youth Safety;
• Verification;
• Privacy & Personal Information;
• Impersonation & Identity Abuse;
• Account Integrity & Enforcement Evasion;
• Adult Sexual Content & Nudity;
• Graphic & Disturbing Content;
• Self-Harm, Suicide & Eating Disorders;
• Prohibited & Regulated Goods and Services; and
• other applicable Media.com Rules and Policies.