Brits are sidestepping Discord’s age checks—required under the new Online Safety Act—using Death Stranding’s photo mode. Yes, it really works; we tested it ourselves. All you need is a copy of Death Stranding and your phone—thanks, Kojima! The new rules block adult content without official ID, but Sam Porter Bridges is your new passport.

As of today, the UK’s Online Safety Act is fully enforced, meaning any attempt to access adult content online now requires “robust” age checks. Of course, it didn’t take people long—less than 24 hours—to find creative loopholes in some of these systems.

Our James spotted a clever hack on X from DanySterkhov: using Sam Porter Bridges selfies to fool Discord’s age gate.

Naturally, we had to try this “infiltration” method. The result? (Cue Deus Ex music.) James bypassed Discord’s new verification and grabbed plenty of NSFW content, with the system none the wiser. (It was all for science, naturally.)

“Dangerous on a whole new level”—while Steam’s latest policy change is fresh, credit card tricks have haunted adult gaming for a while, with Nier: Automata’s Yoko Taro raising the alarm last year.

Bottom line: it works! We’re back to reading saucy Baldur’s Gate 3 fanfics on Discord. (Not that we’re under 18—obviously.) And no, we’re not telling you to skirt the rules—adult content is for adults. But as hacks go, this one keeps your real face far from Discord’s age-verification AI, K-id or not.

K-id verifies you in two ways: face scan or photo ID. The latter’s self-explanatory, but the former uses algorithms to judge if you “look” old enough for adult content. Here’s what Discord requires:

Supposedly, K-id doesn’t store your video selfie or ID after you’re approved, per Discord’s own help docs. In theory, that means there’s no harm in using your real face—but it’s understandable if that doesn’t feel comfortable. The bonus: once you’re verified, there’s no record left, so no one knows you passed with Sam Porter’s mug instead.

The trick: use your phone to run Discord’s age check, open Death Stranding’s Photo Mode, and zoom in on Sam Porter (played by Norman Reedus) for a close-up selfie.

The K-id verification asks you to open and close your mouth to prove you’re a real human. Kojima’s attention to detail means that’s easy—Sam’s expression bar lets you pick all sorts of facial movements. The “mouth-move” test is meant to block, say, magazine covers, but it’s not hard for games or AI to beat.

We weren’t sure it would work with Sam wearing the otter hat in James’s save, but it did—and the process took maybe thirty seconds start to finish. Thirty seconds for entry, thirty for a little Baldur’s Gate 3 fanfic data exfiltration.

Don’t get the wrong idea: the UK’s age verification effort isn’t totally worthless because of this. It’s just one loophole in one system; other sites use stricter methods. This might not work everywhere.

Still, as Britain stumbles toward a digital panopticon, it’s worth noting the law’s fuzzy language on encryption and privacy. It might stop some kids from seeing things they shouldn’t, which isn’t bad—if only it didn’t threaten privacy for everyone else.

Source: PC Gamer