If you use Janitor AI from Brazil or Australia, the door now has a lock on it. As of April 24, 2026, anyone connecting from an IP address in those two countries has to pass a one-time age check before they can keep chatting. Everyone else is unaffected, and Janitor says it has no plans to expand the gate to other regions.
This is a legal requirement rather than a product decision, and Janitor has been openly unhappy about it. Two new laws forced the change. In Australia, the Age-Restricted Material Codes under the Online Safety Act 2021 took effect on March 9, 2026, requiring age checks for adult content and AI services. In Brazil, the Digital ECA (Lei No. 15.211/2025) took effect on March 17, 2026 with equivalent rules. The alternatives were to verify ages, block both regions outright, or risk fines of up to 35 million dollars in Australia and 9.5 million in Brazil plus possible blocking orders. Janitor chose verification.
The check runs through k-ID, the same provider Discord, Twitch, and Snapchat use. Affected users get three options: a facial age estimate that runs entirely on the device with nothing uploaded, an ID scan that k-ID deletes immediately after confirming age, or an AgeKey, a reusable pass for anyone who has already verified on another k-ID platform. Janitor itself never sees any of the documents or footage. The only thing it receives back is a yes or no on whether you are over 18. The system keys off your connecting IP address, not GPS or a home address.
Separately, Janitor spent the first half of the year reworking the model behind the scenes. Back in late January it began rolling out an FP8-quantized build of JLLM tuned for its H20 GPUs, aimed at better memory efficiency and longer context, with testing at a 16,384-token window. That work is about throughput and chat length, and it is unrelated to the regional age gate, though both landed in the same stretch of the year.
For the wider picture on the platform, our Janitor AI review covers what it is and who it suits, and Character.AI vs Janitor AI is the most common head-to-head. If you are comparing the polished commercial options instead, the Crushon AI review and the overall rankings are good next stops. The full notice is in Janitor’s announcement post and changelog.