Epic Games provides Yoti facial age estimation to Bluesky for UK users

Social media platform Bluesky has selected Epic Games’ software, including biometrics-based age estimation from Yoti, to ensure its compliance with the UK’s new age assurance regulations.

Epic Games, best known as maker of Fortnite, provides age assurance through its subsidiary Kids Web Services (KWS). KWS became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Epic when the management team of its maker, SuperAwesome, acquired a controlling interest in their company in early-2024. SuperAwesome had selected Yoti for facial age estimation in 2023 to support Epic’s verifiable parental consent system.

KWS bundles together Yoti’s facial age estimation with other methods of age assurance, including age verification with payment card checks or ID card scans.

Bluesky will block “adult-appropriate content” from the accounts of people under 18, or unwilling to go through any of the age assurance options provided, and disable certain features, including direct messaging, to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act.

Bluesky has more than 37 million users, though only 10.6 million have used the platform in the past 90 days.

The feature is not yet live, but Bluesky says UK users should expect to see a notification that the update has taken effect soon.

Social media platforms have until July 25 to apply age assurance technologies as a means of keeping pornography and other inappropriate content away from their underage users in the UK.

This post was updated at 12:56pm Eastern on July 14, 2025 to clarify the ownership of KWS and SuperAwesome.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  Bluesky  |  facial age estimation (FAE)  |  gaming  |  Online Safety Act  |  social media  |  Yoti