Fact Check-Comparison of ID requirements for Xbox users and immigrants in Britain is misleading

By Reuters Fact Check

A widely shared Facebook post that criticises Britain's Online Safety Act and suggests the law makes it harder to use a Microsoft Xbox than enter the country is misleading.

The law, which requires that users of the gaming device verify their age, is part of a wider move to push social media platforms such as Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok to protect children and remove illegal content.

“Britain is now a country you can enter without photo ID, but you can’t play Xbox without it,” said an August 12 Facebook post, which was shared 113 times. An identical post on X received more than half a million views.

Comments underneath suggest some had understood the posts to be referring to asylum seekers who arrive in the UK without identification.

"They want to have full control of the law-abiding people but it doesn't apply to the ones that enter here illegally. Disgraceful and utterly unfair!" said one comment.

The premise of the post is incorrect, however.

There will be four ways to verify with Xbox: photo identification, facial age estimation using artificial intelligence, an age check via a mobile phone provider, and a credit card check, a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

This means gamers will not necessarily need photo identification for full access to Xbox features from 2026, contrary to the social media post.

“There are several easy and secure methods for age verification on Xbox that players can choose from,” a spokesperson for Microsoft said. “Starting early next year, age verification will be required for players 18+ in the UK to retain full access to social features on Xbox. Players who do not age verify will have their use of social features on Xbox limited to friends only.”

The Online Safety Act became law in 2023. Since July 25, 2025, social media platforms have had a legal duty to protect children from accessing harmful content. Although Microsoft already verifies users' ages, some features will be restricted if they do not comply with the new procedures by 2026.

“These new laws are about ensuring online spaces do not pollute children's feeds with violent and abusive material that can devastate and even end young lives,” a spokesperson for the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a passport, driver’s licence or Biometric Residence Permit are required to enter Britain legally, according to a UK government webpage.

For asylum seekers, identification documents are requested to make an asylum application. The 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, to which the UK is a signatory, implies, however, that an asylum seeker can make a claim without identification, Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said in an email.

VERDICT

Misleading. Photo identification is required to legally enter the UK, while it is one of four ways users can verify their age on Microsoft’s Xbox.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.