VRChat plans to offer age verification to its adult users starting with certain early access groups.
VRChat explained the plan to partner with an organization called Persona to externally verify age with a government ID as well as a phone or computer with a camera. The feature will be used to “gate access to instances that were created with the ‘Age Verification’ option enabled” and won’t be required to use VRChat overall.
“Age-verified users can also opt to have a Verified 18+ badge added to their profile,” VRChat explains on a form for groups to apply for early access.
“We’re going to be partnering with a few event organizers to run a trial for age verified events,” VRChat Senior Community Manager Strasz explained in a video. “During this trial period only members of those select groups will be able to apply for age verification and only those groups in particular will be able to restrict instance access to those who have been age verified. We’re keeping it small to start so that we can work out the kinks.”
Group Instance creators who have access to the feature “will have the option to restrict access to age-verified users. For example, a bar may want to restrict access to 18+ users. This will require all attendees to go through the Age Verification process. Once the process is complete, that user (assuming they are 18 or older) can enter any Age Verification Instances in the future.”
An optional badge indicating “Verified 18+” can also be added to their VRChat profile.
“In this trial phase, Age Verification will not impact content filters, but we will consider how to do so as we scale and Age Verification becomes generally available,” VRChat explains. “We believe that adding age verification as an option will enable our communities and users to better tailor their experience and build a stronger and safer platform.”
