Industry Solution
The UK Online Safety Act is here. U.S. state laws are multiplying. Your users are terrified of handing over personal data to access adult content — and they should be. XY Zinc was built from the ground up for this exact problem: real biometric age verification that satisfies regulators without collecting, storing, or ever seeing your users' personal information.
Age verification for adult content has a fundamental tension that other regulated industries don't face: your users have an overwhelming reason to not want their identity linked to the content they access. This isn't about having something to hide — it's about the very real risk of data breaches, blackmail, discrimination, and social consequences if a verification provider's database is compromised.
Traditional age verification providers collect names, addresses, ID numbers, and photos — creating a database that is, by definition, a list of adult content consumers tied to their real identities. This is a target. Breaches have happened. Users know this, which is why many would rather use a VPN to bypass verification entirely than hand over their data.
We verify age biometrically — a quick face scan determines whether someone appears to be an adult. We return a pass/fail result. Then we delete everything. The selfie image, the liveness data, any ID documents if Tier 2 was needed — all of it. Immediately. We never extract names, addresses, or ID numbers. We don't build a database of your users. There is nothing to breach, nothing to subpoena, nothing to sell.
This isn't just a privacy feature — it's the entire architecture. Our system was designed from day one around the principle that the safest data is data that doesn't exist.
Adult content age verification is no longer theoretical. Laws are enacted, enforcement is active, and the list of jurisdictions grows every legislative session.
| Jurisdiction | What's Happening |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | The Online Safety Act requires age verification for adult content sites accessible from the UK. OFCOM is the regulator. Biometric verification is explicitly mentioned as an acceptable method. 18+ threshold. |
| Texas | HB 1181 requires age verification for adult content websites. Enforcement active. Penalties include fines up to $10,000 per violation. |
| Louisiana | Act 440 — one of the first U.S. states to enact adult content age verification. Active enforcement. |
| Utah | SB 287 requires age verification for adult content. Multiple major sites chose to block Utah entirely rather than comply. |
| Virginia | Age verification law active. Similar to Texas and Louisiana models. |
| Mississippi | Age verification law enacted. Enforcement active. |
| 10+ Additional States | Active legislation in multiple states following the Texas/Louisiana model. The list grows every legislative session. Federal legislation has been proposed. |
This table is provided for general awareness and does not constitute legal advice. XY Zinc's system supports region-specific configuration, automatically applying the correct verification requirements based on the visitor's location.
Adult content is an 18+ threshold — which means XY Zinc's biometric face scan handles the vast majority of verifications without ever needing to see an ID document.
Tier 1 — Biometric Face Scan (Handles ~95% of Users): A quick face scan using the user's phone or webcam. Our liveness detection confirms they're a real person (not a photo, bot, or deepfake), and the biometric analysis estimates whether they appear to be 18 or older. For the vast majority of adult users, this takes seconds and requires no ID at all.
Tier 2 — Government ID + Face Match: Some jurisdictions mandate ID-based verification regardless of how old the visitor appears. For these regions, you configure Tier 2 as required in your admin dashboard, and every visitor completes the ID check. The date of birth is extracted, age is calculated, and the face on the document is matched to the live face scan. The ID image and all extracted data are immediately discarded.
For regions where Tier 2 is enabled but not strictly mandated, tenants can optionally configure a skip threshold: if the Tier 1 face scan determines the visitor has a very low probability of being a minor (we recommend a threshold of 2% or below), the ID step can be skipped. This is a per-region configuration that the tenant controls — it is not legal advice, and tenants are responsible for determining whether this approach is appropriate for each jurisdiction they operate in.
XY Zinc automatically detects the visitor's location and applies the correct verification requirements for their jurisdiction. A visitor from Texas sees a verification screen citing Texas HB 1181. A visitor from the UK sees a screen referencing the Online Safety Act. Visitors from regions with no age verification requirement pass through without interruption. Visitors from regions where adult content is prohibited entirely see a block page.
This per-region configuration is managed through your admin dashboard — you control which regions require Tier 1, which require Tier 2, which are blocked, and which are unrestricted.
Images exist only in server RAM during processing. Maximum retention: 15 minutes. Deleted immediately upon completion.
These anonymized records serve as your compliance audit trail without linking any verification to a real identity.
Once a visitor is verified, a cookie is set on your domain confirming their verified status. They browse your site freely without being asked again. The cookie is typically valid for 365 days. This replaces the traditional "click if you're 18+" modal entirely — your age gate is now a real verification, and it only happens once. You can integrate this cookie into your user profile or membership structure.
In every other industry that requires age verification — alcohol, cannabis, gambling — the customer's purchase is legal, socially accepted, and unremarkable. Adult content is different. Even though it's perfectly legal, there's a social stigma, and a database linking real identities to adult content consumption is a weapon waiting to be misused.
If the verification process asks for a name, address, or stores ID photos, a significant portion of your users will use a VPN to appear from an unregulated jurisdiction instead. You lose traffic and you lose compliance. Privacy-first verification keeps users on your site.
The legal requirement is to have age verification in place, not to make it impossible to circumvent. Users who VPN around verification are making a deliberate choice — your audit trail shows you implemented real verification for everyone who accessed your site from a regulated jurisdiction.
If the age verification service you use is breached, and your users' names and browsing data are exposed, that's a crisis for your brand even though the breach wasn't on your servers. With XY Zinc, there is no user data to breach. The risk simply doesn't exist.
XY Zinc was built by someone who has operated adult websites for over 25 years. The integration options reflect the platforms this industry actually uses.
Gate your entire site or specific pages and categories. One settings page, no code changes. Visitors are redirected to verify, then returned with a verified cookie. Compatible with major caching plugins.
A few lines of JavaScript on your page handles the redirect-and-verify flow. Works with any static site, custom CMS, or platform. No server-side code required for basic integration.
Full API access for custom integrations, headless platforms, or CMS plugins (Elevated X, custom tube site platforms, etc.). Create sessions, poll for results, manage tenant configuration programmatically.
For adult content sites, the visitor's location determines which law applies. XY Zinc detects the visitor's country and state automatically and applies the correct verification tier — or no verification at all for unregulated regions. This is configured per-tenant in your admin dashboard.
No opaque enterprise pricing. No annual contracts. You pay per verification attempt. Adult content is 18+ — so Tier 1 (face scan only, no ID) handles approximately 95% of your verifications.
Tier 1 — Most Verifications
$0.05
per attempt
Biometric face scan & liveness detection. Estimates adult probability. No ID needed. Takes seconds. Handles ~95% of users.
Tier 2 — Required or Optional by Region
$0.15
per attempt
Government ID + face match. Some states mandate ID verification regardless of appearance. Tenants configure which regions require Tier 2 and which allow Tier 1 only.
Pricing shown is for sites processing approximately 100 verifications per day. No hidden fees. No minimums. Discounts available for higher-volume sites — contact us to discuss your needs.
Comply with the UK Online Safety Act, U.S. state laws, and whatever comes next — without making your users choose between verification and privacy.