Discord’s new age-verification tool may not be as rigorous as it seems, after users reportedly discovered it can be tricked using video game characters.
The instant messaging and VoIP platform, commonly used for gaming, implemented an age-check tool earlier this month for UK users in anticipation of a new set of laws aimed at restricting potentially harmful content for under-18s.
The Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, requires service providers that host user-generated content to implement age checks to ensure that children are protected from adult or otherwise inappropriate content.
It allows the broadcast and online regulator, Ofcom, to fine website and app hosts that don’t meet its age verification standards.
Discord’s age-checking tool requires that users complete an age-verification check, which requires them to provide either a picture of their face or ID, to access ‘Not Safe for Work’ (NSFW) channels, servers, or otherwise “adult” images and videos.
You can use Death Stranding's photo mode to bypass Discord's age verification https://t.co/o9n0c0lwkI pic.twitter.com/mvYmhZZCVp — Dany Sterkhov 🛡✈ (@DanySterkhov) July 25, 2025
But, as one user discovered, the age-check tool can reportedly be fooled by using images of high-fidelity video game characters.
In a viral X/Twitter post on Friday (25 July), a Discord user shared screenshots of their age-verification process, saying that because their phone hadn’t updated the Discord mobile app, and their computer didn’t have a webcam, they tried tricking it with a picture of the character Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding.
The user claims to have used a picture of the character, played by Norman Reedus, to trick the age-check tool into believing it was them. The 2019 video game also comes with a picture mode, which allows the player to change Sam’s facial expression, allowing the user to bypass a secondary check which requires a person to open and close their mouth to make sure they are a “real person.”
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The Discord user then shared a screenshot suggesting that the age-verification tool had determined they were an adult and allowed them to access NSFW content.
Here’s what to know about the UK Online Safety Act as it goes into effect. (Getty)
Several groups have expressed concerns not only about the nature of the UK Online Safety Act, but also over how the law will be enforced by private organisations.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit specialising in “defending civil liberties in the digital world,” said the legislation is a “dangerous attempt to remake the internet.”
“Instead of privacy, we will have age verification. Instead of security, we will have backdoors in end-to-end encryption. And instead of free speech, we will have scanning and filtering of all content, all the time.”
Others have expressed concerns that the Act could force smaller websites to cease operations in the UK or shut down entirely. Several websites have already shut down, citing the law as a direct reason for their closure.
Following the enactment of the law on Friday (25 July), searches for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in the UK reportedly skyrocketed by 112 per cent.
VPNs allow users to bypass regional-based restrictions by hiding a device’s IP address and allowing to connect to another server, typically one overseas.
Ofcom has said platforms must not host, share, or permit content encouraging the use of VPNs to bypass age checks, adding that parents should be aware of how VPNs can be used to bypass the Act.