Microsoft has joined the ranks, even though a few other major companies – all of which could be considered rivals – are not doing the same.

If you are in Australia and purchase Xbox or PC games through the Xbox Store, the next time you try to buy an R18+ rated game, you may be asked to verify your age. Microsoft confirmed this in an email sent to users this weekend: “To comply with Australian regulations, from August 2026 you may need to verify your age before purchasing or accessing apps and games rated 18+ on the Microsoft Store and Xbox Store.”

You can verify your age with Microsoft using email verification, facial-recognition-based age estimation via a “secure selfie”, a credit card or a government-issued ID such as a driving licence or passport. Verification is handled by London-based VerifyMy. Age-verification software has received well-deserved attention this year. In February, security researchers reportedly discovered that an identity-verification provider called Persona handles information security carelessly and does much more than simply verify age. Persona is one of the most widely used verification providers – Roblox, Twitch and VRChat all use its software. Meanwhile, Discord tested the system with its British users.

However, following a 2025 data breach on Discord, the details of 70,000 government-issued photo IDs fell into the wrong hands. Alongside these obvious information-security issues, there is growing concern that age-verification technology, under the pretext of protecting children from adult content, is merely a Trojan horse designed to enable increased surveillance. By early 2026, new age-verification requirements had already taken effect in Australia, the United Kingdom and 25 U.S. states.

Not every company is acting quickly to comply with the rules. For example, neither Steam nor Sony has yet implemented stricter age verification in Australia. It is possible, of course, that the Australian government will eventually tighten the rules.

Source: PCGamer, VerifyMy