"Apps receive only the age-related signal needed for the experience and not sensitive personal data such as full date of birth," Microsoft explained.
Windows Age API: age ranges without birthdays
Microsoft has added a Windows Age API to Windows 11 that returns coarse age ranges rather than exact dates of birth. According to the company, the API can report categories such as under 10, 10–12, 13–15, 16–17, and 18+. The stated aim is to let apps learn whether someone is a child, a teenager, or an adult without exposing sensitive personal data like a full date of birth.
Microsoft Age Verification (MAV): verify once, use everywhere
Windows will integrate with Microsoft Age Verification (MAV), which stores a verified age status with a user’s Microsoft account. "Verify once → use everywhere," Microsoft says, and apps will be able to check that verification status through the Windows Age APIs instead of asking users to re-prove their age repeatedly. Microsoft already offers age verification through its storefronts in Singapore, Brazil, and Australia, and the company says more regions are planned as regulatory requirements expand.
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End the scrambleDeveloper-facing calls: GetUserAgeRangeAsync and GetAgeVerificationStatusAsync
Microsoft has provided two specific developer calls. GetUserAgeRangeAsync returns the age-group signal (the ranges listed above), while GetAgeVerificationStatusAsync tells an app whether the user’s age has been verified rather than simply self-reported. Microsoft positions these calls as a way for apps to automatically adjust features and safeguards for younger users — for example, enabling built-in limits or safety modes — without requiring parents to configure each app individually.
Parental controls, setup visibility, and regional rollout
The company is also increasing the visibility of parental controls during Windows setup in certain markets, with France specifically named. The combined framing — more visible parental controls during setup plus a shared, account-rooted verified age status — is presented as a way to simplify management across apps and services while centralizing age-related signals with the Microsoft account.
What this means for developers, parents, and policymakers
- Developers and app makers: They now have two explicit APIs to query a user’s age range and verification status and can use those signals to change UI, enable safeguards, or gate features for younger cohorts without collecting full birthdates.
- Parents and end users: Parents may need to configure fewer apps individually because verified age status stored on the Microsoft account can be reused across apps; Microsoft also plans more prominent parental-control prompts during initial Windows setup in at least France.
- Policymakers and regulators: Microsoft has already deployed age verification in specified markets (Singapore, Brazil, Australia) and ties future expansion to changing regulatory requirements, noting "more regions planned as regulatory requirements expand."
The Windows Age APIs are broadly available to Windows Insiders now and Microsoft says they will roll out to all Windows users soon. The company frames the feature set as particularly relevant to AI experiences, where it says age-appropriate protections are becoming increasingly important.
The tools Microsoft describes are narrowly scoped: apps receive an age-related signal and a verification flag, not the underlying date of birth. That design choice is the explicit privacy framing Microsoft uses in announcing the feature, and it is the central tradeoff the company is asking developers and administrators to accept as they adopt the new APIs.
