Death Stranding Photo Mode Being Used to Bypass Age Verification

Following the passage of the UK's Online Safety Act, some users are bypassing the age-verification checks put in place by Discord and other sites via the photo mode functions in Death Stranding. By booting up Death Stranding and taking a picture of Sam Porter Bridges, the measure allowed UK users to conceal their identities and trick Discord's age-check systems.

The UK's Online Safety Act went into full effect on July 25, which required age checks for accessing adult-centric content online. Before the act was fully enforced, Discord previously tested its age-verification measures in the UK and parts of Europe as early as April 2025. The system, known as K-id, verifies users via a face scan or an ID scan, and deletes any pictures or documents after a user's age is confirmed. However, the Online Safety Act and associated age-verification checks were criticized by users, with some expressing privacy concerns over the data collected by these new requirements.

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Taking Discord's claims of not permanently storing identifying information into account, some users have found ways to circumvent the checks mandated by the Online Safety Act. As reported by PC Gamer, Twitter user Dany Sterkhov claimed that Death Stranding's Photo Mode could be used to bypass K-id and access Discord's age-restricted functions and channels as before. By using Photo Mode to take a picture of the main protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, users can also open and close Sam's mouth when prompted by the age-verification process. With Discord's systems not storing the photo data used to verify users, it currently has no way of double-checking which ones used Sam's face as a bypass.

Death Stranding's Photo Mode Can Bypass Discord's Age-Checking Systems

Another Twitter user, GimmeBoss, replied that the same countermeasure used by Dany Sterkhov works with Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, as they used Sam's pictures to pass K-id's checks. While Discord's K-id process is only utilized in certain regions, the process has drawn the ire of privacy advocates and critics, who have called the UK's Online Safety Act "Draconian" and questioned how safe age-verifying vendors are. Although Death Stranding's Photo Mode has been used as a bypass for age checks, some users have also resorted to using VPNs as a workaround.

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By masking their IP address via a VPN, users can then access Discord as a user from the same country where a VPN server is hosted, such as the US. Along with the UK's new age checks, PC gaming storefronts Steam and itch.io are also cracking down on which forms of adult-focused content are allowed.