Microsoft is implementing an age verification system on Xbox accounts to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act, and in a new blog post announcing the move, the company suggests it’ll come to other countries, too.
Players in the UK who indicate on their account that they’re 18 years or older will now “begin seeing notifications encouraging them to verify their age,” Microsoft says. The process is optional for now, and players will be able to enjoy playing Xbox games until “early 2026,” when verification will become mandatory to “retain full access to social features on Xbox, such as voice or text communication and game invites.” If you don’t verify, you’ll still be able to make purchases, play games and earn achievements, but social features will be limited to your friends.
Microsoft says its hopes to learn from its UK program, and “roll out age verification processes to more regions in the future.” The company cautions that the version it introduces in other regions might look different than the “proof of government-issued ID, age estimation, mobile provider check and credit card check” options it’s offering in the UK, but age verification will be the norm.
The UK’s Online Safety Act was signed in to law in 2023 to ban nonconsensual deepfake porn and create rules preventing children from being exposed to adult content. As regulators have defined ways companies can comply with the law, implementing an age verification system has become the solution most platforms that host adult content have settled on. That’s why Microsoft, Bluesky, Reddit, Discord and others have announced age-verification programs in the last few months.
The problem is, no age verification system is foolproof, and in some cases all they take is a photo to circumvent. The Verge reports you can fool Reddit’s age gate with the photo mode in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, for example. Using a VPN has also proven to be a way to get around age verification tools. If companies take Microsoft’s approach and introduce age verification in more regions, it might get harder to avoid, but widespread adoption has privacy and security implications of its own.
