Sony's Spamming PS5 Age Verification Reminders Ahead of June Cutoff

[message removed pending age verification]

Tried to do it, entered the code they texted me and it said I'm still not verified. So looks like my 19 year old PSN account will now be classed as a child account 😂

Verify my middle finger

I got Sony to do it via my mobile number. I hope that my service provider just confirmed "Yes", I'm over 18, rather than providing personal details themselves, but who knows.

Is "take a photo of your face for age estimation" actually a thing? How is an estimation a verification?

If you voted for Labour you have no-one else to blame but self.

Having had time to think about it, and to be fair to Sony, they know it's only a matter of time before the Eye of Sauron casts its gaze more closely on the gaming industry, and so they are getting ahead of the game and PR problems.

Not because there is a problem with Sony per se, but there are obviously things like Roblox and Minecraft with a terrible reputation that will drag the industry down with them.

I'd say that age gating such online gaming services to protect kids (who have failures for parents) is quite fair and legitimate. It just needs to be made easy for anyone who doesn't have the ID. E.g. despite being ancient, I don't actually have a passport or photo driving licence as I passed my test before a certain date.

This is different to the age gating of social media, where I feel it is a sinister attempt by the Government to remove anonymity and make people fearful of criticising them when combined with other draconian restrictions on speech.

Make sure you register to vote and use your votes wisely.

@For-Kier It's based on some kind of awful automatic process that checks your facial features against a library of others to determine your age.

People have found numerous ways around it by tricking the AI or program or whatever it is.

The funniest one was people using Death Stranding 2 to bypass the checks, as you can change Sam's facial expressions to comply with what the process is asking.

@THEBrew it was introduced in 2023 by the Tories, Labour decided to keep it. I'm fairly comfortable blaming them both for this.

@THEBrew I don't even live in the UK I know it was tores that bought this bill up first

I've had 2 emails about this since the bank holiday, needless to say, jog on

@THEBrew We can thank both our major parties for this sadly..
Boris introduced it, Sunak passed neither really thought about it and Labour made this mess out of it.

@THEBrew This is a Conservative bill being finally implemented. Unrelated to the current, also awful, government.

I haven’t had an email so does this mean I’m exempt? 😂

Farage will probably keep this age verification too - whenever he gets in, he'll be too busy down the pub

So are under 18s not going to be able to use the messaging system? Or can they still talk to friends and family members?
Also I'm wondering what the long term effects of having a generation of kids with limited social media and technology experience are going to be when they grow up, in a world that very much needs knowledge of that.

I will happily take my PlayStation offline before handing over my ID to 500 'trusted partners'. Especially a company being sued by the Spanish Government over security and data concerns.
No more having to pay for PS+. Less money to Sony. I would certainly not buy a PS6 either.
I will find other ways to play the games I enjoy.

@Balosi also waiting to hear about this because I'm not going to verify my ID. Info on their website says:

You may not be able to use:
Communication features on PlayStation (console, PS App and web)
Voice chat
Text chat / messaging
Joining parties or group sessions
Connected or third-party communication experiences
Discord voice chat
Broadcasting and sharing features
Broadcasting gameplay to YouTube or Twitch

Is it even legal in your country? I understand the UK law situation, but then there should be some sort of data protection laws that may contradict possibility of age verification via your ID.

Nope, not interested, clear as day where all this nonsense leads.

@LordAinsley They may have been in government when it was passed but Labour were in opposition at the time when their objection was that it didn't go far enough and they are in government now making demands of companies to comply or else (and also to install backdoors in their E2EE). This is on both parties.

@Swirly Of course he will, a law this authoritarian is a wet dream to wannabe dictators like him

@THEBrew Better then the Tories or Reform.

@Dogbreath I have to disagree. A negligent parent will just authorise the account for their kids. As will many good parents. It's a moronic notion of "safety", entrusted to a government that has repeatedly demonstrated itself the most unfit of guardians. It's a foot through the door, argued on a basis they know is sympathetic.

Do you need to do this to game chat in private with friends?

@Weez I actually agree with your disagreement!

You are dead right that bad parents will verify the Sony account, because they want Little Johnny to get lost and stop bothering them.

However from Sony's perspective that's neither here nor there.

Sony are covering their backsides, so when the BBC run an exposé about some predator on PSN, Sony can release a statement that "we age verify accounts so no one under 18 has access to the social features unless an adult deliberately gives them access to their account".

The public will know what's up and it will head off any overbearing Government regulation in response to such stories.

There can be no classic BBC fake news story, with the stereotypical photograph of parent and child sat on sofa pulling sad faces and saying "we wuz victims of evil corp".

I did this without any hassle a while back, using my phone number (which they already have), and a verification code.
No photos, ID, or anything else silly.

I even did it via my console settings as there was a new option there.

For info: I have a monthly contract on my phone, and I assume it works because you have to be 18 to have a contract in your name.

Absolutely no way in hell am I giving Sony a picture of my face or a scan of my passport after all the account hacks and compromised user details issues. This is a deal breaker for me and where I draw the line. If the phone number doesn't work I'll do without.

I've had my PS account for 18 years, it's ridiculous.

Yeah these reminders from Sony are beyond irritating. My personal information, privacy and security is worth far more to me than the ordeal of hearing random people screaming into microphones. I'm more than happy to stop using Sony's products and services if they won't take no for an answer.

Nah I ain't doing that.

I do know you can pay people to do age verification for you now if people have to do it but don't want palantir to own every part of you.

I paid my mate to age verification for discord 🤢

Sony, ffs, leave me and my kids alone. Go eat a bag of 💩.

You have our money. Think that's enough!

In wales they banned plastik bags, before the ban i was often asked where is the nearest Tesco because they seen the bag.
with the streets littered with plastik waste due to vapes I see Sony losing custom why because mum and Dad let the little ones into a room with pedo's.
please see the irony.

They can keep spamming, not doing it, ps plus canceled and no interest whatsoever on playstation or consoles in general, good riddance.

Ireland is not part of UK, why would it need to comply for being in European union?

@BaronSqwelch if they are dumb enough to see which accs are older than 18, they should not complain when people migrate to the services that offer no bs or in this enshitification era, to decentralised markets. Like Linux gaming.

Not in the UK so dont have to abide by totalitarianism.

@Bamila Northen Ireland is apart of the UK. The republic of Ireland is a sovereign nation. The island is split.

If the irish government is good at one thing it's not getting anything done. We probably won't ever see this implemented. The UK is a full on nanny state and will speedrun this nonsense.

@Old-Red yea my account is over 20 years old. It could have graduated from Uni by now. The email attached to it is even older. The phone number is not far behind. Makes no sense to verify my age.

Im just here to see how all the fanboys try defending this one 🤣🤣

Guess it's time to cancel ps plus no point in paying for online playing if I can't talk to people because I won't verifying

I hate this crap (even though it doesn’t impact me as I don’t play multiplayer games online anyway). Not Sony’s fault though, it’s the bloody government listening to all the self righteous activist morons.

@rat-paradise
So basically the government have made anyone who allows people to communicate scared they’ll be liable for what people say. Utter ridiculousness.

@JoeNobody article says Ireland not Northern Ireland.

@Bamila Ireland is not its own country The Republic of Ireland is. Don't be a fool.

And this crap is headed to the USA next... glad if Steam ever does it they'll insist to tie it to a credit card on file

@Rich33 The service verifies identity via your cell provider, which in turn verifies via your payment details. It's effective in deanonymizing you, which is why it's an option to begin with.

@Dogbreath I'm not disagreeing with it being in Sony's best interests, only that those interests align with my own. Sony isn't some plucky underdog; They're a massive, multi-national corporation better positioned to resist policy than you or I. Every "understandable" or "acceptable" implementation of digital surveillance is further normalization - paving the way for those which are not.

Oh no, I won’t be able to use messaging or chat! Oh wait, I didn’t use them anyway 😂

@Dogbreath
Personally, and its only an opinion, but I believe all this stems from 'sabre rattling', and potential future action, from the UK / Europe etc, against (mostly US based) 'big tech'.

When certain people talk about 'Trade deficits' I don't believe they add in the massive revenue from a lot of activities (eg advertising / sponsorship etc) which makes these companies, and thus countries like the US, a huge amount of money. I don't even know if they add in things like subscription to digital services. The 'trade deficit' figures certainly always seem very one sided and no economy could cope with that.
Therefore reducing money going out of countries to these companies does not affect any 'trade deficit' , but does affect the import/export balance in terms of money transferred.

On the other hand things like Social media and the influence it has are becoming concerning to a lot of people, and has made itself an easy target - some companies continued reluctance to increase, or decreasing self moderation, is very concerning in itself.
Some of these companies rely on getting people started at under 18, hoping it becomes such a large part of their normal lives it continues through adulthood.
A ban on under 16's, even if only marginally effective, will have a massive effect on social media companies earnings from worldwide sources.

I 100% agree with you that Sony getting "ahead of the game and PR problems" is the best thing for them.

@JoeNobody which is exactly why article should have said UK and Northern Ireland, because South isn't part of UK, hence it's not United Ireland as a whole. When someone says Ireland you think of a whole island.

@THEBrew you clearly don’t know anything about this. 😂

@JohntheRaptor that’s the thing, unlike the angry at everything brigade, I don’t mind making things safer, but our accounts are old that the age that needs to verify common sense needs to apply, so I’m not angry at the policy I’m angry at the implementation

@ShogunRok Is this the republic of Ireland or northern Ireland??
Ireland doesn't have the same government as the UK because it's a sperate country hundreds of years fighting and all that!
Maybe update the story because it's a bit offensive to an Irish person like myself!

@Bamila Your 100% right my friend thank you for pointing this out the article comes across like it's written lazy the republic of Ireland and northern Ireland aren't the same county and the English government certainly don't make laws for the whole of Ireland.
As an Irish person it's slightly offensive to me and disrespectful just an article written lazy

@JoeNobody The article should stipulate that it's northern Ireland as an Irish man I can tell you now most Irish people would call this extremely lazy writing and offensive.
The British government don't have any say on laws in the republic!

@JohntheRaptor We are too busy building a bike shed and a wall for a around 1 million combined that's our government haha

This is dystopian. Stay strong UK and Irish bros.

If you haven't verified yet, think it through while listing to some inspirational music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUo2mPYQ2E

You can always call and text your gaming buddies on Signal.

@StrickenBiged it's probably the latter.

No, absolutely not.

I would sooner take both the PS5 and the Series X offline, than have to submit to this social control.

People have a responsibility to follow good laws, but a bigger responsibility to challenge bad ones.

We no longer have freedom of speech or of protest, here in the UK, because the government is bought and paid for. They are in thrall to a group of murderous psychotics.

I have read Brave New World, and 1984. These are cautionary tales, and warnings of governmental overreach and the abuse of power.

They are not a damned instruction manual!

@Bamila Quite possibly, but it's probably not information I hadn't already given Sony myself prior to all this age verification. In the UK we have to show ID to get a mobile phone contract, so my provider will know my DoB from a source document, whereas Sony only had it on my say-so before.

@Matthewnh maybe watch dogs London had a point after all

@JoeNobody You’re the fool incorrectly correcting others. The official name of the country is simply ‘Ireland’. ROI is a description of the state, not the name.

Sony is rolling this out to Irish accounts as well as UK ones as confirmed on their website: https://www.playstation.com/en-ie/support/account/age-verification-faq/