Ofcom: only two of four dating services check for a live face
The UK regulator Ofcom found that four dating services all used face-based age estimates and photo-ID matching, but only two checked that the face was live. Ofcom calls the findings early and says the services have since started closing the gaps.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, published its Report on the use of age assurance on July 16, 2026, under the Online Safety Act 2023. Age assurance is the umbrella term for checks that verify or estimate how old a user is. Section 6 of the report covers four dating services, which it does not name.
All four used facial age estimation, software that guesses your age from a selfie, and photo-ID matching, which compares that selfie with the photo on an ID document, the report says. Only two of the four also had liveness detection, according to Ofcom. That is a check that the face belongs to someone actually in front of the camera. Without it, the other two checks are easier to fool with a printed photo or a video of someone else. Ofcom says the services have since begun taking steps to improve, including liveness detection.
How many teenagers get through is harder to pin down. The report cites Ipsos Iris data showing that 12% of UK online 15-to-17-year-olds had visited at least one of the three highest-reaching dating apps in December 2025. Ofcom says that is comparable to the 12% it reported for May 2025, before the duties took effect in July 2025. The Ipsos figure rests on a base of 118 teenagers, which is small, and it counts visits to the apps. It says nothing about how they got past the checks. Ofcom calls its findings early.
The report does not name the four services, so it does not tell you whether an app you use was among them. Our Bumble page says what we could and could not confirm about that app’s ID checks.