Anthropic is now enforcing its minimum age requirement more actively, locking accounts of users under 18 after identifying age violations through conversation history.
The minimum age for accessing Claude is 18 under Anthropic's Terms of Service - a requirement that has existed since launch but, like most AI platforms, relied on users self-certifying compliance at sign-up. The shift suggests Anthropic is moving toward active monitoring rather than passive trust.
The move aligns with increasing regulatory pressure on AI platforms around minor access. The EU's Digital Services Act requires platforms to implement age assurance for certain content types, and several US states have passed or are considering similar laws. AI assistants with broad conversational capabilities and no fixed content scope sit in an ambiguous position, making age enforcement a growing priority for companies managing liability exposure.
For users under 18 who have been using Claude for school work, coding help, or research, the enforcement creates an immediate gap. Several alternatives exist with lower age thresholds or dedicated education tiers, though Claude's performance on writing and coding tasks has made it a preferred choice for many students.
How Anthropic is identifying underage users matters. Conversations that include self-disclosed age are the most obvious signal. More systematic enforcement - requiring identity verification or third-party age assurance services - would affect a much larger population and carries operational costs that most AI platforms have so far avoided. For now, enforcement appears targeted at accounts where age information was apparent in chat history rather than a platform-wide sweep.