{"id":390094,"date":"2026-04-21T07:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390094\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:57:08","slug":"playstations-age-gating-restrictions-are-coming-to-uk-consoles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390094\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation\u2019s age-gating restrictions are coming to UK consoles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Sony is starting to comply with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2023\/10\/26\/23922397\/uk-online-safety-bill-law-passed-royal-assent-moderation-regulation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UK\u2019s Online Safety Act<\/a> by notifying PlayStation players of its age verification requirements today. PS4 and PS5 owners in the UK and Ireland won\u2019t be able to participate in voice chats, messaging, parties, or other third-party communication services from June unless they verify their age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">\u201cBeginning June 2026, if you have not completed age verification, you can continue playing on PlayStation, but some features won\u2019t be available until you verify your age,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.playstation.com\/en-gb\/support\/account\/age-verification-faq\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sony in a support note<\/a>. Age verification will also be required for broadcasting features or sharing gameplay to YouTube or Twitch from a PlayStation console.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Sony has partnered with Yoti to handle age verification in the UK and Ireland, and you can verify using a mobile number, face scan, or ID. Sony\u2019s restrictions on social features are similar to how Microsoft rolled out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/714458\/microsoft-xbox-age-verification-uk-social-features\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">age verification on Xbox<\/a> last year. Microsoft also uses Yoti to verify age in the UK, and Xbox players need to be over 18 to retain full access to social features like voice or text communication and game invites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">While Sony won\u2019t be requiring age verification for UK and Ireland PlayStation accounts until June, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/id.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com\/id\/management_ca\/?entry=verify_identity_management&amp;smcid=blog%3Amand%3Aqr%3Aaadc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">verify early<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofcom.org.uk\/online-safety\/illegal-and-harmful-content\/important-dates-for-online-safety-compliance\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">come into force<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sony is starting to comply with the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act by notifying PlayStation players of its age&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3447,111,43,139,69,10661,6361,370,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-390094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-playstation","14":"tag-sony","15":"tag-tech","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}