GTA Online may soon require age checks to play, claims Rockstar leaker

Rockstar will soon be adding age verification checks to GTA Online, potentially locking a certain degree of content behind the new system. The news comes from a well-known leaker who claims that Rockstar has already made internal changes to GTA 5 to implement this new step.

Tez2, who is a reliable leaker, has shared in-game files that point to the change. It shows a number of messages, like “Verify your age to access online features,” and “You must meet the minimum age requirement to access this online feature.” It’s not known what exactly would be restricted at this point, but the leaker has said that it may be features like Snapmatic, phone messages, and text chat.

This news comes in response to a joke made about how Rockstar doesn’t require verification for Vanilla Unicorn, a strip club in GTA Online. Tez2 mentioned that GTA will implement more checks in the future and will roll out the change by region.

This isn’t something out of the ordinary, either. Xbox recently made it compulsory for players in the UK to verify their age to access social features. At this point, it isn’t certain what measures Rockstar will take to verify age, but if Xbox’s measures are anything to look at, FaceID will be required to confirm your age.

While this change is being implemented to protect younger users, some have spoken against it, citing censorship concerns, and with the release of GTA VI fast approaching, it raises questions on how Rockstar will implement these checks to help ensure age-appropriate experiences for all players.