Until now, apps that wanted to perform age verification had to rely on primitive methods, like requiring credit card details, using third-party identity checks, or trusting the user with a date of birth input or an “I am at least 18 years old” checkbox. None of these methods truly prove that someone is an adult, which is an issue for apps with mature content.
Microsoft’s intent is to centralize the age verification process with the Windows Age APIs, which buckets your age group and provides a status that indicates whether your age has been independently verified. The move is in response to greater pressure from regulatory authorities in the US, UK, and EU, who are all pushing for stricter age verification laws.
Using the Windows Age APIs, an app can ask two main questions: “Which age group does this user belong to?” and “Has the user’s age been independently verified?” Microsoft emphasizes that apps will not receive a user’s actual date of birth.
Note that not all apps are eligible to use the Windows Age APIs to ask these questions. According to Microsoft, its “Digital Safety” platform first validates the app to see if it has been properly registered and is allowed to to query for age verification. In other words, random apps won’t be allowed to snatch user ages arbitrarily.
While the Windows Age APIs are currently documented in the Windows SDK, they haven’t yet been enabled in Windows 11. It’s unclear when exactly the enablement will happen, but it shouldn’t be too far off—most likely before the end of 2026.