Welcome to 2026 UMD! I hope your new year got off to a crazy, mucky start! Mine has

Thanks to everybody for your patience as this announcement has been a long time coming. I didn't want to leave you hanging, but there were a lot of details to iron out before announcing how things are going to go with age verification. Hopefully this announcement brings clarity instead of just confusing everybody!

More and more jurisdictions around the world are requiring that adult sites use 3rd-party age-verification services to check your age before letting you view adult content, so for months I've been updating the site to stay compliant as these laws change. None of us asked to be put through this, so I'm doing my best to do just what's legally required while trying not to leave people behind.

Age verification is open
So far I've integrated Yoti and Veriff, so you can use either service to get verified right now. They're both free. The main difference is that Yoti requires a smart phone and app download while Veriff only requires a regular cell phone or computer that has a camera. You can get age-verified without a UMD account, but if you do have one, it'll be permanently marked as age-verified so you never have to go through the process again. UMD does't store any data from these services other than the yes/no response that you are at least 18 years old. Here are the links to get verified, also found in your preferences:

Verify through Yoti here.
Verify through Veriff here.
Read more details about each service in our Verification Services FAQ.

Age verification is separate from producer verification
Our billers have already required that we do "producer verification" (with the green checkmark) before you upload explicit content. Age verification is separate, as it's confirming you're an adult so you can view the explicit content. So even if you're already producer-verified, you may also want to get age-verified.

Who will be blocked?
Nothing will be blocked for people visiting from locations where age verification isn't required. If it's required and you choose not to verify, you won't lose your account or your content. Existing users will always be able to log in and use the site, plus access their profile, content, inbox, and records. For those affected, I'll also make a temporary bypass link available at first so that we can ease into this thing a little better. To know who needs to be verified, UMD uses an internally-hosted list of known locations that require verification, which you can see along with other details in our User Verification FAQ.

When will the blocks be activated?
I will activate the first blocks sometime in February, probably starting with Alabama and expanding to more states in alphabetical order. At some point I'll add blocks for the entire countries and other areas that require it. I'll be actively watching and moving deliberately because I want to keep disruption as minimal as possible.

What will be blocked?
Some jursdictions require us to block just the explicit content while others require blocking entire pages. UMD is set up to dynamically apply one or the other depending on your area. If you are affected, you might see blank images and videos scattered around, or you might see an entire page blocked.

Please label your content!
We have the ability to block just the explicit content instead of whole pages where legally allowed, but that will only work if the content is correctly labeled. So if you have content here, please go through all of your photos and videos, and label any R- or X-rated content. If you need help with tedious or bulk changes, contact me and I can probably help you from the backend.

Quick guidance about these ratings is on the R and X FAQ.
A full explanation about what is explicit is on our Parental Rating Guidelines.

Still serious about privacy
None of us is excited to expand our digital footprint, and these age verification companies do keep your data on-hand for a period of time for their own legal reasons. I chose these two services so far because they had good reputations, and I've signed up through them too! But corporations are corporations so I intend to be transparent about what I learn while researching and integrating all these services. I'll note anything I find on the Verification Services FAQ as time goes on. The reason we even have to choose government-issued ID for verification is because other technologies like AI age estimation aren't yet universally recognized as a valid way to verify age.

For more granular details about producer and age verification, see our User Verification FAQ.
For any issues or feedback, you can always contact me from the contact page.

I do plan on adding more age verification services eventually, so if anyone has any good experiences with other ones, please let me know. Huge thanks to the 400+ people who have already completed age verification, especially those who have given me feedback on their experience so far. Note that I will probably need to edit this post as time goes on, but I'll note any changes in a comment.

I know it sucks that we have to go through this, but compliance with the law isn't optional, so we might as well knock it out the park while still keeping our integrity. I really want this thread to be a place for a good discussion about how we can move forward together and transition into this new phase smoothly. So here's to a brand new year, and to new challenges to keep the messy vibe alive!

Peace,
Messmaster

I'm including some responses from later in the thread so they're all in one place!


Having an older account at this site unfortunately cannot exclude you from the age verification requirement. That's because a site's internal record of the user's signup date or account age has no legal bearing; The site must be able to prove that it got the confirmation from a separate age verification service that has the ability to check photo ID.


Having made a purchase on our stores using a credit card doesn't qualify as age verification. Intuitive as that might be, governments at large only recognize photo ID as valid proof of age. Also, billing companies are set up to process sales, not to function as age verification systems or to explicitly communicate age status via API.


Age verification is not identify verification, so it is not used try to determine a person's actual identity beyond proving they are of legal age, which is all the law requires. For this reason, we can rely on the verification service's determination that the visitor is of age without us needing to know any of their personal information.


You can use Veriff with just a computer or an older cell phone, just as long as you have a way to snap a photo of your ID and your face.


I'll stay agnostic about how people connect to the site, as compliance is based on point of access, not intent. But I do need to be careful about hosting guidance right on this site about how to bypass your local laws. So going forward, please don't make posts explaining how to use a VPN in the context of getting around age verification blocks.

Well done MM, I am surprised you have lasted this long without implanting it. While everyone would like to be anonymous, as a producer if get a message or a comment on one of my posts I always look for the green check mark. I want to talk to Adults, how else can I know if you are 10 years old and in your Mom's basement giggling with your chums or a user with a question I should answer?

We are all shy about looking at 'Adult' material and would prefer if it was private, but I am a Father, and if my kids were still 8 years old I would not want them looking at sexual material. In a smaller digital world its nearly impossible to stay off the grid, just deal with it.

Just my $0.02 worth

Phil

I've been meaning to do the age verification for a while, this thread finally prompted me to get it sorted.

Went with Yoti. Simple process:
Install the app from Google Play.
Fire it up, create an account, it askes for phone number and sends a code text to confirm it's really yours.
Do the face scan. Basically let it take a couple of selfies.
Add passport details, let it take a photo of the ID page, then scan the chip in the passport.
At this point, Yoti now has proof of my age to government standards.
Come back here, click the Yoti link in MM's post above, use the app to scan the QR code.
Tap to confirm to share details.
UMD confirmation page comes up to confirm my account is now age-verified, permanently.

Personally I don't think age verification will make the slightest difference to whether kids see porn of not - I saw porn when still in primary school in the 1970s thanks to a bunch of magazines stashed under an old boat in an abandoned lot next to the old town telephone exchange - but politicians are insisting "something must be done, this is something, so it will be done", and neither MM nor anyone else has any choice in the matter. So better it be well done and smoothly implemented than left in a muddle. And this implementation seems very smooth and took all of ten minutes to do from a standing start.

Well done MM!

Done but that was a palava

Done. Used Veriff and it was very easy and does not need to install an app.

Thank you as always MM for the transparency and for keeping this place humming.

Well done MM, all done here.

Used Veriff and it took about 30 seconds!

NJx

Completed. Veriff was very easy.

I'm sorry but this is crazy. Having to register one's masturbation habits with the a government contractor is insane. Data leaks happen all the time, and these "verification" sites will be prime targets for blackmail material (with face pics!) by criminals, foreign governments and maybe political activists. I'll probably just give up and leave.

Can we get an exception for people with old accounts? My account is old enough that I'd be an adult even if I opened the account when I was in in the womb.

I know this isn't UMD's doing and that this isn't something anyone is especially excited about, but......these steps are where you lost me. Hopefully for now age verification isn't required in my location.

I know this isn't the UMD's fault (and I'll be among the first to give the UMD shit when it's deserved) but good night is this a grim development for the internet. And as with everything else related to kink/fetish content, it's a shame that those who exclusively love the non-nude, non-explicit stuff have to get lumped into it too.

People, it's time to build up your social skills, learn photography, save up for your own shoots, and start appreciating the value of quality over quantity. Or better yet, save up money for custom content from producers who actually have to go through all this. Either way, modern internet culture is throwing up way too many administrative hassles and safety risks to generate the cheap abundance we grew up with anymore. You gotta want it now.

While I know that this is not your doing. I am curious how you are going to confirm that the person behind the keyboard accessing the site matches the ID of the person that submitted it for verification? This is just the Chantelle issue on a wider scale.

It's not MM who does the verification, it's the external age verification site. In my case it did a full biometric facial scan, twice, then a photo of the photo page of my passport and then a read of the NFC chip in my passport. While I'm sure a resourceful enough tech wizard could probably hack their way round that, you'd have to be pretty advanced in skills to do so, so for the vast majority of people it'll be easier just to comply. All MM gets is the yes/no on "the user who used the app is or isn't over 18". Now it would be possible for someone over 18 to do that and then give control of the account to someone else under 18, but if they do so they're commiting identity fraud which is illegal in most places. But that's on the user, MM has done his bit in ensuring that anyone accessing explicit content here has been age verified.

That is not identity fraud. No where on this site is an alias associated with a legal name.

Honestly, I will probably just change my VPN country when this goes into effect so that MM is not accountable. I understand this is not his doing. This is the knee jerk reaction of conservatives who support pedophiles trying to protect children. Ironic isin't it LOL.

It's not your fault Messmaster , because you have to look after your site / business / livelihood , but as someone from the UK my opinion is that this is evil dystopian globalist BS that is using children as a PRETENSE to forge ahead with their global 1984 style fascism ! Starmer ( our Fuhrer here ) didnt do a great deal about the grooming gangs over here yet is pretending that seeing a pair of boobs will corrupt kids for life . Personally Id rather my kids be safe from grooming gangs ( if I had kids ) . If the Globalist Digital ID isnt stopped it will then be followed by the Globalist Digital Currency tied to the Digital ID and then the Social Credit Score . And if that happens , basically , we're ALL f***ed ! So called ' conspiracy theory ' is rapidly becoming conspiracy FACT ! And before anyone asks , Im not a tory , Im not a reform supporter , Im not a green party supporter , in fact I dont support ANY politicians because I think they are ALL corrupt and only serve their elite paymasters rather than , you know , the people that actually vote them in at the ballot box . Starmer is so ' democratic ' he's already cancelled local elections because he knows he's about as popular as herpes in a brothel ! At this rate , one day ( probably in the not so distant future now ) posting a paragraph like this will get someone ' marked ' as an ' enemy of the ( globalist ) state ' or a ' domestic terrorist ' . Tie that to digital ID and the ever growing number of facial recognition cameras and its as plain as the nose on your face that piece by piece human freedoms are being flushed down the toilet !

pssst
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/11/nx-s1-5641086/tourists-social-media-screening-changes

Verified mine with Veriff. Thank you

I'm scared. Not even sure what to say anymore out of fear. Guess this means they win, hu? I miss when anonymity was respected.

As I mentioned to you previously the AI age verification methods that verify your age via selfie are also unreliable, for example a lot of them are useless for most female redheads like me, they often don't work properly for female redheads, most of them said I was a toddler and automatically referred me for human review which was immediately approved, but you can also trick the AI age verification systems as my 15 year old niece recently did for a bet, so I think the id verification method is the only realistic option, albeit a pain in the ass, but I wish it wasn't necessary!

This! This right here! Haha! Scan my passport? Oh hell no, lol
I have been on the UMD since Grover Cleveland was in office. I guess I will just have to ramp up my own pie projects. I will enjoy myself until you get to Florida, then well, as Curly would say, Bye. I will miss you guys. I hate to be all gloom and doom here, but I would guess there will be 1 tenth of the people here once this is in full effect. Well, I am pushing 100 years old now, so I guess my wackity wack waking is almost to an end, lol
In all seriousness, data breaches and government overstepping > pie fetishes. Well I had a good run, see you all down range. I have 9 states to go, wish me luck!

I agree. I've been here for 27 1/2 years. I don't trust the government with my information one bit. I hate to lose contact with a lot of people here, but I consider this an invasion of privacy.

I was not looking forward to this.
I havent got a smart phone; I use a desktop and have a tablet.
When I've tried things like a passport application before, using my tablet, it always says that the pictures are not clear enough.
I tried veriff, and it's easy to use, and it worked!
I put my passport under a lamp, took a pic and then a selfie, and hey!
Thanks, Messmaster, for including us non-smartphone users!
Peter

Not to hijack the thread, but....Grover Cleveland the 22nd US President or the 24th US President? Historians must know!

A few thoughts on this:

MessMaster said that age verification is separate to producer verification, i.e. being verified as a producer doesn't prove that you're over 18. (So, Dirty Muse is apparently wasting his time by looking for the green tick.) Is that because:
a) The "government-issued photo identification" might not include a date of birth.
b) The UMD would be happy to accept a producer where the ID shows that they're under 18.
c) Having a photo of someone else's passport doesn't prove that I'm actually that person (i.e. there's no face scan involved).

The verification services FAQ talks about what data Yoti and Veriff will share with the UMD (e.g. the person's real name). However, I'm more interested in what data the UMD is sharing with those companies. E.g. do they just know which website is asking for the info, or do they also get a copy of my username?

DungeonMasterOne said that people could only bypass the checks if they're a tech wizard. However, I can see a simpler way to do it: log into someone else's account after they've verified their age. How many people here have simple passwords, e.g. "123456"? That's going to be an issue for most websites, and I assume that the goal here is to do the minimum necessary to satisfy legal requirements.

Looking at the parental ratings guidelines, it's interesting that implied nudity counts as R-rated, and therefore adult content. So, that would include the recent videos from the Man and the Wife where models had their hands over their breasts. I'm surprised about that, but maybe the USA is stricter than the UK. As a comparison, there's an old UK film called "Carry on Camping" where someone's bra flies off and she covers herself with her hands; that film is rated PG.

Personally, I'm not planning to verify, which is why I took down my profile pic recently. Maybe this will be an opportunity for non-explicit producers to have their own websites which don't need age verification (rather than relying solely on the UMD).

Yoti sees your ID, a video of your face, and sends the response to UMD. They don't see your user name or content on UMD.

People always mention Carry on Camping but you get a much better view of Barbara Windsor's tits in Carry on Dick, which is also PG rated. However for posting it here, I have tagged it R-rated. Occasional brief nudity is permitted in PG rated films, but UMD isn't the BBFC. I think most people will understand if you see breasts you should R rate it, and if in doubt you should err on the side of caution. We'll figure this out with time.

As a teenage Boy I wanted to motorboat Barbara Windsor Tits so bad.....

Both

Woman Handcuffed and Fined for Feeding Pigeons in Harrow

1 hour ago
On January 7 around 2:30 p.m., Harrow Council enforcement officers in northwest London spotted the woman breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order that bans feeding birds to prevent street fouling and rats. She refused to stop or give her details for 20 minutes, so police handcuffed her briefly under the Police Reform Act, obtained her information, then de-arrested and fined her £100, payable in 28 days. Video of six officers and two council staff surrounding the distressed woman amid passersby drew widespread criticism online for heavy-handed response over breadcrumbs, while police and council defended it as necessary for repeated non-compliance.

That's the type of thing we're dealing with here in the UK . Starmer can stick his Digital ID where the sun doesnt shine ! It seems like he's trying to compete with Kim Jong Un of North Korea !

I'll try this, but I don't see how trying to use my passport picture will work for anything.
I just renewed my, US, passport this last week, (all online, SUPER simple and QUICK -- Seriously, State Dept. mailed me my new passport book like four days later), but the picture they use is seriously distorted. There are two copies of my photo on the front page, a third copy on the second page, all three are different sizes and have holograms or digital manipulation behind or in front or embedded. None are in color except for the one on page two that appears to use a 4-color palette and is intentionally fuzzy.
Just a heads up to US Citizens. I don't believe the photos are intended to be human-readable.
I think I could have sent them a picture of a horse's ass.

It's unfortunate but I guess necessary. It'll be the end of my time here though.I've been here over 15 years, but I won't be uploading that kind of information to 3rd party websites.