Death Stranding helps bypass age verification in the UK
From 25 July 2025, the requirement for online age verification under the Online Safety Act comes into force in the UK. Platforms such as Discord and Reddit are required to verify that a user is 18 or over - by either scanning their face, or uploading ID (passport, driving licence, etc).
Here's What We Know
Gamers have discovered an easy way to bypass biometric verification: using Photo Mode from the Death Stranding 2 video game. They take a photo of the character Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus), showing the right expressions (like opening/closing his mouth or turning his head), and the system mistakenly thinks the character is a real person - and confirms age.
This method works both on Discord with the k-ID service and on Reddit with the Persona system, but has not escaped the scrutiny of Bluesky/Yoti - they are more resistant to such tricks.
People who don't want to provide personal data to third parties or pay for a VPN can now bypass verification without the risk of revealing their real identity. Admittedly, the very fact of circumvention exposes the weakness of current biometric mechanisms for hardware-based user identification.
Context and reaction
Human rights activists and privacy experts have long warned - such systems can lead to excessive control, data leaks and surveillance of users. The dramatic increase in VPN use in the UK (up to 500-1400%) shows users' distrust of the new law. A petition against the law has already gained over 280,000 signatures.
While other services - TikTok, Pornhub, X, Bluesky - are implementing different verification methods, circumvention via video game demonstrates the gap between legislative intent and actual technological sustainability.
Source: The Verge
