Spotify has joined Xbox, Discord, and Reddit as the latest major platform to enforce age checks in compliance with the UK’s Online Safety Act, which mandates robust ID verification for access to adult or mature content online.
Effective from July 25th, the law affects a wide range of digital services, and Spotify is now asking users to prove their age via methods that include facial scanning and ID submission. Partnering with biometric ID firm Yoti, Spotify triggers verification checks when it suspects users may be under its minimum age requirement of 13 or attempting to access age-restricted content.
Controversially, Spotify’s policy also warns that accounts failing to comply with the age check may be deactivated and eventually deleted. Although Yoti claims that all biometric data is deleted after verification, the move has prompted major privacy concerns.
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The process has been criticized for being too invasive, with some users even claiming they’ve been asked for age verification despite being well over 18. There are also further concerns about the verification process being circumvented by underage users, who could potentially use VPNs or parental IDs to sidestep restrictions. A vocal minority has even threatened to revert to piracy.
Over on Discord, users quickly discovered that the app’s age verification could be bypassed using the photo mode from the game Death Stranding. By uploading a convincing in-game selfie of protagonist Sam Porter Bridges, users successfully fooled AI-based systems into granting access, a loophole exploited within hours of the law’s rollout.
In other Spotify news, multiple artists have pulled their music off the streaming platform due to CEO Daniel Ek‘s investment in AI drone technology, with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard recently following the lead of Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu.