Sony making age verification mandatory for core…
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Sony making age verification mandatory for core PlayStation social features feels like a preview of where the internet is heading
I’ve been looking into Sony’s new PlayStation age-verification rollout for the UK and Ireland, and the part that stands out is how many normal features get tied to it.
If an adult account doesn’t complete verification, Sony says it can lose access to voice chat, messaging, parties, Discord voice chat, broadcasting to YouTube or Twitch, and some in-game communication features.
So this isn’t just a policy change sitting in a help page somewhere. It’s a good example of age checks turning into everyday product infrastructure.
What makes this interesting to me is that it changes the feel of the platform. Verification stops being a rare edge-case thing and starts acting more like a gate you pass through if you want the full social version of the product.
I get why companies are doing it, especially with pressure around online safety, but it also feels like a preview of a more verification-heavy internet where more basic features sit behind proof-of-age or proof-of-person systems.
Curious how people here see it:
Is this a reasonable tradeoff for safety?
Or does it feel like the start of mainstream platforms normalizing identity checks for standard features?
#technology
I’ve been looking into Sony’s new PlayStation age-verification rollout for the UK and Ireland, and the part that stands out is how many normal features get tied to it.
If an adult account doesn’t complete verification, Sony says it can lose access to voice chat, messaging, parties, Discord voice chat, broadcasting to YouTube or Twitch, and some in-game communication features.
So this isn’t just a policy change sitting in a help page somewhere. It’s a good example of age checks turning into everyday product infrastructure.
What makes this interesting to me is that it changes the feel of the platform. Verification stops being a rare edge-case thing and starts acting more like a gate you pass through if you want the full social version of the product.
I get why companies are doing it, especially with pressure around online safety, but it also feels like a preview of a more verification-heavy internet where more basic features sit behind proof-of-age or proof-of-person systems.
Curious how people here see it:
Is this a reasonable tradeoff for safety?
Or does it feel like the start of mainstream platforms normalizing identity checks for standard features?
#technology
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