- The UK’s Online Safety Act has introduced age verification tools across multiple platforms
- It prevents users from accessing potentially 18+ rated content
- It’s left multiple gamers and Discord users looking for alternatives due to verification issues
Britain’s new Online Safety Act has left online users in uproar, with age verification required to access channels on platforms like Discord or Reddit that contain 18+ (NSFW) content. However, as the internet often does, many have found a workaround to bypass this requirement.
As reported by our friends at PC Gamer, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding and its photo mode allow users to bypass new UK age verification checks. The measure requires users to capture their faces or personal ID to determine their age, but using Death Stranding‘s Sam Porter Bridges character appears to be enough for verification.
Since Death Stranding’s photo mode has multiple emotes for Sam, players can easily use their phone’s front camera and use specific emotes that make Sam open and close his mouth, as per the face scanner’s instructions (which you’ll see below).
Having tried to scan my face to access my own Discord server and other Safe for Work (SFW) servers with age-restricted channels, it either displays instructions every few seconds (before you can even follow them) or incorrectly determines that you’re a young teenager, which was my result.
An easier solution of using an image might come to mind, such as scanning in a pre-existing image, but as I’ve mentioned, this system requires you to make certain facial movements, which is something a still image can’t do.
The new requirement is considered a positive measure, possibly preventing underage users from accessing harmful content (and rightly so). However, it’s inadvertently affecting those who are of age, especially those who aren’t comfortable with sharing their personal ID, despite the suggestion that images aren’t stored after verification is completed.
We’ve already seen a huge leak of the Tea dating app, leaving personal IDs and images of users widely available online, so there’s no guarantee that using personal IDs for other social apps is safe either.
Analysis: I’d rather not use my personal ID for social media, so I’ll pass
First and foremost, I’m not advocating or recommending the use of this Death Stranding bypass by any means, especially if you’re underage. However, since there are clearly issues with the face scanner, including a lack of alternatives to access Discord servers (besides using a personal ID), this is the only solution for many.
I’ve tried to use the face scanner to no avail, and according to Discord, I’m a young teenager, which clearly isn’t the case. Fortunately, Reddit’s age verification face scanner worked easily for me without any issues, so perhaps it’s an isolated issue with Discord’s face scanner.
The last thing I would do is use my personal ID for verification for a social app like Discord, and it explains why gamers are going to the lengths of using tools like Death Stranding‘s photo mode.
It’s worth noting that there is already a petition in place to repeal the new Online Safety Act, so it remains to be seen what comes of this all.
For now, I’ll be patiently waiting for another solution – and fortunately, I’m in no rush to regain access to a small selection of Discord servers.
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