Your PlayStation Wants a Selfie to Prove You're an Adult

Somewhere between "accept the terms of service" and "scan your face so we know you're old enough to send a message," the bar for using a PlayStation shifted. PS5 users in the UK and Ireland are now being greeted with a pop-up notification asking them to verify their age, and the options are exactly as personal as they sound: take a selfie for a facial age estimation, upload a photo of your passport or driver's licence, or confirm your identity through your mobile phone number.

The notification, first reported by Push Square, includes a QR code that links to Sony's website where the verification process begins. Sony's message frames it as compliance with global regulations and says the check is an one-time process that "usually takes just a few minutes." According to an email obtained by Insider Gaming, Sony Interactive Entertainment plans to roll this out worldwide later this year, though no specific global date has been given. UK and Ireland users appear to be the first wave.

If you skip verification, you lose access to a significant chunk of what makes PlayStation a social platform. Messages, voice chat, party sessions, Discord integration, broadcasting to YouTube or Twitch, and even some in-game communication features all get locked. You can still play your games, earn trophies, and browse the PlayStation Store, but anything involving talking to another human being goes behind the gate. As I covered last week, this was coming, but seeing the full list of restricted features laid out makes the scope feel much bigger than a simple compliance checkbox.

I get the regulatory pressure here. The UK's Online Safety Act isn't going away, and Discord and Roblox have already gone down this road. But asking every adult PlayStation owner to hand over a selfie or a scan of their passport just to keep using party chat feels like a wildly disproportionate response to a problem that better parental controls could solve. Sony says it's "committed to respecting privacy," but the three verification methods on offer are a facial scan processed by third-party software, a government ID photo, and a mobile number tied to your carrier records. None of those feel particularly privacy-respecting.

At least one user on social media has already reported errors during the verification process. Sony's FAQ page recommends completing verification early to "avoid interruptions later," with the UK and Ireland deadline reportedly set for June.