Amidst its commitment to “providing players with a safe and secure experience”, as per a new Xbox Wire post, Xbox has unveiled that it’ll soon be implementing a new age verification system in the UK, changing how users access voice chat and online play.
A law recently came into being in the UK known as The Online Safety Act.
It essentially mandates that websites hosting harmful content protect young internet users.
This includes porn and any content that depicts self-harm and suicide, as well as content deemed too graphically violent.
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Any website or platform that hosts such content will now have to deploy age verification systems in order to prevent certain users from accessing it.
This has notably already come into effect on Pornhub, although underage users are reportedly using Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’s hyper-realistic Sam in place of their own faces in order to continue gaining access.
We’re now seeing Xbox outline its commitment to the new Online Safety Act.
As per the blog post, Xbox has confirmed that UK users who claim to be aged 18 or over will soon see a notification asking them to verify their age when signing in with a Microsoft account.
This is reportedly a “one-time process” so that Xbox can “continue to provide all players on our platform with age-appropriate experiences”.
From next year, this will intensify so that only age-verified users can access Xbox’s social features, including voice and text chats as well as game invites.
Those who do not verify their age will be limited to using social features with their friends only; and as a reminder, that rule comes into effect in early 2026.
If you don’t want to wait for the notification, or fear that you’ve missed it, a weblink has been set up allowing users a rapid pathway to verifying their age.
If you’re wondering whether people will be able to bypass this check using a virtual adult character again, well, Xbox has outlined several different methods for its new verification system.
“Proof of government-issued ID, age estimation, mobile provider check, and credit card check” have been listed as options.
And for those young readers breathing a sigh of relief that you’re not from the UK, Xbox intends to “roll out age verification processes to more regions in the future”.
The post goes on to note that “there is no one-size-fits-all solution to player safety”, adding that verification will “look different across regions and experiences”.
Naturally, we’ll bring you the latest should this new scheme rollout further.
Topics: Xbox, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Microsoft