AliExpress Requires Face Verification to Buy Scissors

AliExpress requires selfie to buy scissors: protection or intrusion?

A user attempts to buy scissors on AliExpress and encounters an unexpected screen: before completing the purchase, the platform requires age verification through a third-party service that asks them to show their face to the camera. This is not adult content, but everyday items like cutters or scissors. The product image appears blurry, and when trying to add it to the cart, an age verification system jumps out, redirecting to an external provider.

Reactions from those affected range from surprise to indignation. Some point out that this would be a requirement imposed by Spanish regulations, not Chinese, although the measure seems to be applied erratically: while some users experience it, others claim to have purchased without problems the same day.

The official explanation points to a control aimed at preventing minors from acquiring certain products, but the implementation raises doubts. Prepaid cards allow minors to make payments, so age verification would be an additional filter. However, its selective application and the sharing of biometric data with third parties without transparency about its use raise alarms.

Some users have tried to bypass the control using a VPN or even faceswap techniques via AI, although the system might also require the ID card, complicating identity theft. The measure, which seems to have been introduced in recent months, adds to the 21% VAT that non-EU orders already bear, increasing friction on a platform that until then functioned without hurdles.

Is it really child protection or additional control?

Spanish regulations on minor protection in online shopping are ambiguous regarding products not classified as dangerous. Scissors and cutters are common items that do not require a minimum age in physical stores. AliExpress's decision to impose this verification seems more like a business precaution than a clear legal mandate. The lack of official communication and the variability of the shopping experience—some yes, others no—suggests that this is a pilot or a poorly implemented system.

Meanwhile, regular users of the platform see their shopping experience becoming bureaucratized. Facial verification for a few euros' worth of products generates a disproportion that fuels discontent. The trend toward greater control in online transactions clashes with the immediacy and anonymity that many value in e-commerce.

The surprising fact: those who have managed to avoid verification do not do so by circumventing the law, but because the system itself does not always activate it. Even for the same product, the filter may or may not appear. Thus, the supposed protection is, in practice, an arbitrary patch.