They're doing this because of OSA. I'm starting to wonder if the end game here is like the one for tobacco, where it will be illegal for anyone born before 2008 to use the Internet.
this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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Wouldn't it be easier to implement it like Steam did where account age and payment options were considered? They're basically asking for 2011 to just happen again willingly.
If you'll allow me a moment to gather my thoughts
Don't you need a credit card to buy the onlines? I am aware of gift cards that may be purchased with cash. But like, that takes work. You have to get up. It is far easier to age a few years and get a credit card. Therefore,
Need a law that says that if a company enables age verification, and leak someone's PII, then that company has to pay for all of each affected individual's hardships for the rest of their life due to the company leak.
Maybe even backwards compatibility as well. If a company requires age verification, then they must fund individuals to obtain individual identification since it's not free for people or tax payers.
Best I can do is six months of free credit monitoring.
And a free download code for little big planet
On psp.
You really mean BEST you can do, since the majority of companies not only do they not pay a single cent, but they don't even pay you.
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Bitch, how you gonna ask me for age verification when the account itself is 18+ years old??
Because it's identity verification and citizen surveillance. No one pushing this gives a flying fuck about age.
I was thinking that! I got my PS3 early 2008, my account is old enough to vote
You’ll need to verify your age by June or lose access to PlayStation social features.
don't threaten me with a good time.
They finally fixed the spam problem.
Not sure which is worse, Sony adding age-gating to PlayStation or The Verge adding pay-gating to the article about it.
The first one, by far.
Paying for news goes back 200+ years.
If they were to verify your age using the credit card you probably already have on file to pay for the social features they’re age-gating, then that would be one thing. But of course they use a third party biometrics company with a proven history of leaking biometric data and require a government ID or a face scan, neither of which they’ll be getting from me lol.
I never bought the network adapter for my PS2, so they won't be adding any age verification to it.
Pretty bad look for a company with a horrendous reputation for data leaks.
The age verification company they use was already sued for millions over leaking biometric information.
So lately I've been playing through games that I wanted to play when I was a kid, but couldn't. I'm currently in the year 1992. I think I'll be okay for a few decades. Other people can send their ID's to their 800€ gaming consoles. I'll be using my OG xbox as a emulator and Nintendo can go suck my dick about it.
I'm seriously gonna buy a good set of solar panels, build a log cabin in the woods and just live there. I'd probably starve to death but I'm suicidal anyway so it would be a nice adventure before the final release.
I'm with you. I used to love being in on the bleeding edge of technology. Now it just disappoints me. Enshittifcation is the norm. Instead of "how can we make this game more fun," it's all about "how can we wring more profit out of this," and gathering personal data for marketing is a favorite method. I never thought I'd become a Luddite, but here I am.
I don't want to come off as some sort of luddite, but tech is starting to become dreadful rather than exciting. It's less "what cool things can we do" and more "how can govs and corpos surveil, control, and extract more money from everyone."
It's difficult to pin an exact time, but (aside from medical advances) I would say that technology peaked about 10 years ago in terms of advancements still representing a benefit to the average person. "Advancements" since then have been getting increasingly detrimental.
Same. I remember how everything seemed amazing and the future was exciting, you never knew what the next big and amazing thing would be. Then the next big amazing thing turned out to be facebook, google, advertising and personal data harvesting and after that everything has been complete shit.
But thats why the internet revival thing, is a thing. Thats why the amount of IRC users have started to go up. Thats why more and more people are looking into self hosting things... I'm all for that sort of stuff.
Need a room mate? I've wanted to do this for years now lol. I mean, except the suicide part.
You can be my neighbor, as long as you are at least 1.5 shouting distances away :D
I'm a introverted Finn, I can't deal with roommates :--D
Works for me!
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Because realistically nobody is against it. People can whine all the want, they will verify anyway rather than miss out on online gaming, social media, porn etc. You personally might be the outlier and maybe you even convinced your family and friends, but sadly unless at the bare minimum 50% of users outright leave the platform enforcing age verification they couldn't care less about our feelings.
Nobody is against prohibiting children from playing video games ?
While I don't entirely disagree, I also think the amount may be a bit more than you think. Just to go off of the backlash Discord faced forcing them to wait a few months in hopes nobody will care later. If absolutely nobody was against it for them, they wouldn't have bothered with even that much. Then again, that's PC vs Console, so I'm not sure if the demographics would be drastically different.
I'll be going offline when my OS asks for my ID. I've been online since 98 or so. I don't want to leave, even tho the net is a super shitty place now, but there is just no choice at this time. In the mean time I am building an off line library of stuff
I think it’s more fair to say people will still comply, rather than saying nobody is against it.
It’s amazing how far most people will bend before breaking.
True. Unless you walk away from the platform, in earnest, age verification moves forward.
And it's not like it says in big red writing on the side of the next console that says "BY PURCHASING THIS CONSOLE YOU WILL NEED TO PROVIDE AGE VERIFICATION OTHERWISE ITS A BRICK".
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climate change, school shootings, fascists, pandemics, AI, gambling... what's one more thing?
🎶
Climate change
Poland Spring
Polymarket gambling
Fascists
Smart Bombs
Insider trading
October 7th
trade wars
inflation
Systematic pedophilia
...
Almost works to We Didn't Start the Fire
that was the goal
I read this to the tune of Pinot Noir from The unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
So wait, this means I can never subscribe to PlayStation Plus again?
Okay.
My account itself is 18 years old. If your account itself is of legal age can you skip age verification?
No peasant! Feed us your data, that we promise won't get leaked by the end of this sentence!
UK specifically right now, will probably spread soon to other places.
While Sony won’t be requiring age verification for UK and Ireland PlayStation accounts until June, you can verify early and avoid losing access to features. Both Microsoft and Sony are making age verification mandatory in the UK as more parts of the Online Safety Act come into force this year.
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