Age verification checks are now in force in the UK because of the Online Safety Act, but with the Discord fallout, it seems like one bad idea after another

Age verification checks are now in force in the UK because of the Online Safety Act, but with the Discord fallout, it seems like one bad idea after another | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these AI ‘No platform gets a free pass’: UK government’s Online Safety Act rules extending to chatbots after Grok fallout Software Discord will decide which servers to age-gate ‘with a combination of automated detection with AI validation and human review’ Platforms Oh, good: Discord’s age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel Hardware I’ve tested 3 free Discord alternatives in a desperate attempt not to offer up my personal data just to talk to my favorite weirdos Gaming Industry Videogames are ‘losing in the War for Attention’: Analyst says many of the industry’s biggest markets are spending less time on gaming Platforms US Department of Homeland Security has reportedly demanded personal information about ICE’s critics from Discord, Reddit, Google, and Meta—and at least 3 of those platforms have complied Security Security researchers claim Persona, the provider behind Discord’s UK age verification ‘experiment’, performs ‘269 individual verification checks’ on user data, including those for terrorism and espionage AI A human software engineer rejected an AI agent’s code change request, only for the AI agent to retaliate by publishing an ‘angry’ blog about him Hardware TeamSpeak claims an ‘incredible surge of new users’ has maxed out its hosting capacity in multiple regions as many would-be voice chatters seek a Discord alternative Hardware Someone has already made a free in-browser 3D model to bypass Discord age verification that ‘works on any potato computer’ Hardware Some users are claiming Discord’s default process priorities are causing performance problems in esports games, so I’ve tested it myself to see what’s going on Games Stop Killing Games is launching NGOs in the European Union and the US: ‘We’re not just going away on this’ Hardware Discord clarifies it ‘is not requiring everyone to complete a face scan or upload an ID’ and will ‘confirm your age group using information we already have’ AI Judging by the GPT-4o situation, game developers will have a big problem if they get serious about AI chatbot NPCs Games Discord’s new age verification rules got you down? Allow me to suggest an alternative: Internet Relay Chat PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Hardware Age verification checks are now in force in the UK because of the Online Safety Act, but with the Discord fallout, it seems like one bad idea after another Features By Jess Kinghorn published 22 February 2026 Data disaster. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Getty Images – NurPhoto / Contributor) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. 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Subscribe to our newsletter Jess Kinghorn, hardware writer (Image credit: Future)This week I’ve been: Taking to Discord to sell my favourite weirdoes on my current cozy games of choice: Starsand Island, Potionomics, and Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale.Currently, I can’t check my Bluesky direct messages until I’ve allowed the Epic Games-owned KWS to look at either my bank card, my ID, or my wizened visage. As I’m based in the UK, it’s not just Bluesky I’ve got to worry about either, with similar verification processes now present on Reddit, Discord, and even my partner’s Xbox.This is all due to the Online Safety Act, which came into effect in the UK last year. For many, these age checks are an annoyance at best—but they also represent something that will have ramifications far beyond the British Isles. The UK’s Act was designed in part to ensure children in the UK could not easily access “harmful content.” This is a broad term that includes but is not limited to pornography, content that promotes “self-harm, eating disorders, or suicide,” and “bullying”.To comply with the act and differentiate children from the adults, many platforms have opted for age-gates like the one I’m encountering on Bluesky. Almost 70% of Brits surveyed shortly after the Online Safety Act came into effect said they supported it…though 64% didn’t think it would be all that effective. Indeed, I could log into a VPN to get past the UK-based Bluesky block—though unfor