Rockstar Games are gearing up to add age verification methods to GTA Online. Following the UK’s implementation of the Online Safety Act, sites and services such as Reddit, Twitter, Xbox and more have to verify the age of its users to make sure they are over 18 for certain content. Some gamers have joked GTA 6 will be censored or even banned in certain regions due to this new bill.
The law passed in 2023 but only came into effect this week. In the short time of being active, it has already been heavily criticised for various reasons such as privacy concerns. Other European countries are currently testing age verification before a wider roll out. Those countries are France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece. More are expected to follow.
GTA Online Age Crackdown
According to Rockstar Games insider and dataminer Tez2, Rockstar are officially working on age verification for GTA Online to abide by law. The reputable dataminer states that age assurance checks will be coming in the near future but no time frame has been given. The verification will also be rolled out by region; depending on the laws.
You may need to pass age verification to access GTA Online at all as there are text strings saying “Verify your age to access Grand Theft Auto Online” and “You must meet the minimum age requirement to access GTA Online”.
It could also just restrict certain access to certain features. In text strings found by Tez2, he can see what features will require you to be over 18 and have your age verified:
- In-game phone texts
- Snapmatic
- Text chat
How Age Verification Will Work
Users will be prompted to “Scan the QR code with your phone, or visit (website)” to complete the age rating process. In order to verify their age, users in the UK have had to take photos of themselves and upload it to a service that uses AI to guess their age. Or, send in photos of ID such as passports or driving licenses.
Some age verification services have been easily tricked by video game character model screenshots but others are less foolproof. VPNs have been used by many people to access sites that have put in age verification. So far, this has been effective for most people wanting to dodge the age check process though it is an arms race and not all VPNs will work.
This follows Rockstar Games removing many of the social features that made Social Club, well, social. Walls, viewing player profiles and more have all been disabled. Learn more about the situation here.
How would you feel if Rockstar had to add age verification to GTA Online? How will this impact you? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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17 Comments
Gta
Good? I dont want children in my M rated game…
Please at least do some basic proofreading before posting your stories. For example, this is copied and pasted directly from the article. “Those countries are France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Italy”
I have no problem with the age verification.
Isn’t this game and 18 anyway? Whatever… I hope this goes forward and works..
It’d be great for stopping most little brats from plaguing games like this. Although it doesn’t affect me, I don’t play GTA online, only offline.
But there’ll always be some little rat who slips through the net. A lot actually. If only there was some kind of way to hold the parents accountable.
Clearly you never had good parents that let you have fun little rat
Not really an issue as i am already 18 unless the ai decides im 2 ill be in the clear.
People in these comments are brain dead. It’s not about “isn’t it supposed to be 18+ game durrr durrr” it’s the fact that it’s the PARENTS responsibility to watch their kids, not the governments. Not corporations. Secondly, these companies have data breaches every other Tuesday. There is no way I’m uploading my ID to get my identity stolen just so I can play this overhyped trash pile.
Thank you! Someone else with common sense! If this is something that takes effect across the board I won’t be playing or downloading gta6.
Thank you! Someone else with common sense! If this is something that takes effect across the board I won’t be playing or downloading gta6.
Kind of pointless really. Parents will just verify for thier kids otherwise why would they buy a 18+ for an under 18 in the first place?
They do this at Gamestop, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, before being able to buy any M Rated game in person.
You also can’t order cigarettes, guns, ammo, or booze online without uploading an ID.
*shrug*
I’m okay with doing this to keep squeakers off of GTA Online.
You better have good security. For the age verification feature
All this will do is make kids steal an ID or have chat GPT make one that will work. This will not actually stop many kids. You know would will stop kids? Parents. This is the job of the parents, not the state.
I’m not uploading my sensitive documents to play a game. I’ll be finding methods to dodge it too.
Will this be the same for red dead online/red dead muti-player or just gta? i dont think i wanna scan my face just to play red dead multi-player just so i could go back to shooting down blackwater as dutch 😂
Number one I’m 41 years. Number two I don’t need to do that just to play a damn game I’m a adult and I think it’s bull s t
It’s good game