Thousands of websites and online platforms now require users based in the UK to verify their age before accessing adult content, following the commencement of key provisions in the Online Safety Act 2023.

Various age verification systems are in place, many of which allow users to verify their age by recording a short video of themselves instead of uploading a picture of their ID.

Social media users have since reported successfully tricking a number of these systems with the help of video games with hyper-realistic graphics, like newly-released Death Stranding 2.

Crucially, it is among many modern games which have a “photo mode” in which players can freely pose characters and change their facial expressions.

Discord, a messaging platform with around 35 million users in the UK, uses a verification system called K-id which can consistently be fooled with photo mode in Death Stranding 2, according to PC Gamer.

Other novel workarounds have also proliferated — with one website called Use Their ID allowing visitors to download an AI-generated UK driving licence with their local MP’s face and details on it.