Minecraft will reportedly be adding controversial age verification features for UK gamers next month.
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According to a statement shared on social media, Mojang will reportedly require owners of adult Minecraft accounts to verify they’re at least 18 years old in order to keep access to social features such as chat.
Players will be invited to confirm their age using third-party service Yoti, which reportedly deletes all data as soon as the verification process is complete. The change is being implemented “as part of our compliance program for the UK Online Safety Act and to ensure we’re continuing to provide safe and age-appropriate experiences for our players.”
A Minecraft spokesperson has just confirmed that age verification will be required for Minecraft social features in the UK pic.twitter.com/JAWKs9hSDo
— Andrew (Toycat) (@ibxtoycat) January 16, 2026
Minecraft owners Microsoft rolled out similar age checks for Xbox Game Pass last year. “As this age verification process rolls out across the UK, we’ll continue to evaluate how we can keep players around the world safe and learn from the UK process,” they said in a statement. “We expect to roll out age verification processes to more regions in the future. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to player safety, so these methods may look different across regions and experiences.”
If players don’t verify their age, they’ll only be able to communicate with friends on Xbox, they won’t be able to use third-party services like Discord, features like Looking for Group (LFG) will be unavailable and broadcasting gameplay to Discord or Twitch from your console will be turned off.
However, gaming fans aren’t impressed by having to prove their age, with many worried about their personal information being kept safe. Last year, many players bypassed age verification checks by using Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’s impressive photo mode.
Fuck off with this shit, surely this can’t be legally enforceable on a game people have PAID for & OWNED for YEARS? Also isn’t Yoti known for having weak infrastructure? Why do you want our biometric data so fucking badly? https://t.co/6Q4pz2b64G
— Pheebs2DaJeebs (@pheebusjebus) January 17, 2026
“Age verification impedes people’s ability to anonymously access information online. That includes information that adults have every right to access but might not want anyone else knowing they’re consuming—such as pornography—as well as information that kids want to access but that for political reasons gets deemed inappropriate for them, such as accurate information about sex, reproductive health information, and LGBTQ content,” Riana Pfefferkorn, a policy researcher at Stanford University, explained in an interview with Wired.
Earlier this month, Roblox rolled out age verification checks for all players and restricted online chat functions following “concerns” about child safety on the online platform.
In other news, Sonic The Hedgehog rock band Crush 40 will be heading out on a world tour later this year.
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