‘Death Stranding 2’ is being used to bypass UK government’s new Online Safety Act

It’s been reported that Death Stranding 2: On The Beach can be used to bypass the UK government’s new age verification system introduced as part of the Online Safety Act.

• READ MORE: How Woodkid’s bizarre pop made the world of ‘Death Stranding 2’ even stranger

The UK Online Safety Act came into effect last week which means social media companies and search services now have a “legal duties to protect their users from illegal content and content harmful to children.”

As part of the act, users must now prove their age to access websites that host adult content such as Discord. You can typically do this by uploading pictures of Government-issued ID such as passports or driving licenses or take a video selfie, which the system will then use to “estimate” your age.

Discord uses k-ID for to verify the age of UK members and has assured users that ID documents are swiftly deleted from third-party servers while video selfie footage “never even leaves your device.” However there are plenty of concerts about privacy.

To stop users simply uploading an image of someone else, the system will ask for a specific video such as “close your mouth open”. However some gamers have reportedly discovered that Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’s photo mode is realistic enough to fool the technology.

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

When presented with the age verification pop-up, gamers are launching the Death Stranding 2: On The Beach photo mode and using the ‘Sam’s expression’ bar to pick the requested facial expression. The trick has been verified by PC Gamer.

Following the introduction of the UK Online Safety Act last week, VPN providers have reported a huge increase in sign-ups while some experts are worried the new measures will simply push children to the dark web in a bid to avoid the verification checks.

“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, told Wired.

In other news, the beloved soundtrack from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is heading to vinyl.

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