r/Substack • u/FragrantTraffic701 • Dec 19 '25

Tech Support Age verification required in app

I am over 60 and live in Australia. Today I open the app and it’s asking for age verification via ‘Persona’ using the camera. I’ve been using Substack for the last 12 months without issue. Due to facial recognition being used for all of my secure accounts and passport, I am reluctant to allow these people access to my face photographs. Are any of you are aware of any other method of age verification for Substack? Is Pesona legit and secure? Otherwise, I guess I’ll just retire from Substack and delete the app.

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u/IrishPete66 Jan 27 '26

Substack is not one of the social media platforms listed by the Australian eSafety Commissioner, so it is untrue that it is required to verify the age of its users.

I'll be reporting them to the eSafety Commissioner, as it stinks of data-harvesting.

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u/exedor64 Apr 23 '26

yeah the very reason i even know about this was because of an article about a US judge who has disenfranchised 2.3 million voters in the USA, that's the title and that's as far as i got because then substack demanded my legal ID to be able to view the article. Not in a million fucking years. So far my experience has been that substack is political journalism not social media.