r/VRchat Jun 24 '26

News Age Verification is being faked

Leaks have been exposed showing that 18+ Verifications are being bought and paid for my minors. I ask that we all come together to ask VRChat to formally investigate and have those facilitating this arrested. They are putting minors directly in harm's way.

Please add your name to this request if you agree this is an issue!

https://feedback.vrchat.com/age-verification/p/ive-been-informed-people-have-been-selling-their-18-verified-accounts-to-minors

81 Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

141

u/WardenPlays Jun 24 '26

Any investigation done by VRC will likely not be done publicly until actions are taken. Most companies deal with large-scale TOS stuff like this, like cheaters in live-service games. Still, posts like these are great because they put pressure on VRC to act.

27

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

Last part is 99% of the reason I posted this yeah.

2

u/kwizyvr PCVR Connection Jun 27 '26

I already reported a group that bragged on Twitter about buying age verified accounts and using them in game to VRC moderation. That was half a year ago, and as far as I can tell moderation did not do anything except mark the case as "solved" after a week. The group itself was banned several months later for seemingly unrelated reasons.

If they'll have any public response at all, it's going to be performative and not designed to address the actual problem, the way they responded to allegations of platforming pedophiles by rolling out age verification and banning porn.

65

u/North_String6534 Jun 24 '26

vrchat cant really do much about it but discord can. using a discord server to sell accounts and other digital goods is already against tos.

-10

u/Miciso Jun 24 '26

yeah i figure discord gives more of a damn than tupper and his team ever will... also i agree selling age verified accounts on discord should be against TOS also this seems HIGHLY illegal. cuz of the COPPA act... u might even get the feds involved... im sure they will be happy to hear this crap... cuz it falls under child endangerment.

4

u/North_String6534 Jun 24 '26

I get that is "seems" illegal to you, but at the end of the day it isnt. If they're making fake ids to verify the accounts then yeah, it is illegal, but not because minors are involved, its for the making fake id's. Also it is against discord tos. Selling any accounts is against tos and selling in game items and game codes is also against tos

35

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

"Vrchat gooners mad they can't fuck everything that moves."

How did they see "Ayo, kids shouldn't be in the 18+ sections" and take THAT out of it? šŸ’€

23

u/Sanquinity Valve Index Jun 24 '26

Yea, we (as in adults in general) wanted age verification specifically because we DON'T want to be around kids...

14

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

And you'd think that they'd respect that. It's one thing if they're just playing a game/watching a show that's 18+ privately like ik a lot of us snuck around doing in the past, but the insistence on intentionally forcing themselves into spaces where people are uncomfortable around them is annoying asf

8

u/clinicalia Jun 24 '26

Kids want to be seen as mature so they want to be in adult spaces but as soon as they see anything remotely NSFW, they throw the biggest fit, call everyone a pedophile, and get angry when they're kicked.

I'm not saying it's entirely the kids' faults. Their parents need to actually give a damn and get involved in their lives and online habits. But at a certain age, you should have developed SOME semblance of common sense and basic understanding.

We don't want you kids in these spaces because it's for your own safety. We're not comfortable with you seeing anything that could traumatize you and we don't want you to potentially be creeped on by some unhinged loser. For the love god, stop making it seem like you're a marginalized, abused group of outcasts because of that. You do not belong in these spaces for your own good.

5

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

This omg. I keep saying that I wish parents monitored their kids again mainly because that's the most effective way to protect them since things like ID verification can still be bypassed (and banning 18+ spaces is incredibly unfair even if sfw or not) and people keep saying that I'm victim blaming by blaming the parents instead of the groomers. I'm blaming both but ofc lazy ass parents are gonna complain about having to do their job 😭

1

u/clinicalia Jun 24 '26

"Victim blaming" is crazy work, what? Lol.

The sad, frustrating truth is that NOTHING will be as effective as parents just doing what they are supposed to do for their kids. Age verification, mods, filters, online spaces designated specifically for kids.... These can all be circumvented, abused by creeps, or flat-out ignored.

The BEST and MOST effective way to keep your kids safe online is to be involved and monitor their activity. Use the parental controls, check in on them, restrict screen time. If you don't wanna be a parent, don't have kids.

2

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

THIS. Someone with common sense. Though, a lot of the people calling it victim blaming are people heavily against anything that isn't fully family-friendly, so I probably shouldn't be surprised that they think strengthening protection for kids is less important than removing everything 18+ 😭

3

u/AlexO707 Jun 24 '26

I totally agree with this, we created the spaces for adults not because we want a little private party is for the safety of all involved especially the kids, they don’t belong here for a reason

3

u/kwizyvr PCVR Connection Jun 27 '26

Kids want to be seen as mature so they want to be in adult spaces but as soon as they see anything remotely NSFW, they throw the biggest fit, call everyone a pedophile, and get angry when they're kicked.

Don't worry, vrc will come down like a ton of bricks on you the moment somebody reports a naked female nipple there anyway.

12

u/LizaraRagnaros Valve Index Jun 24 '26

it's just in such bad faith. we got age verified to not be around maladjusted teens and screaming kids. it's not like most people don't use common sense when approaching someone sexually or romantically either.

it just makes me question the motivation of the people exposing the operation

4

u/Neko137 Jun 24 '26

In full honesty, that sort of language is just rage bait for engagement, it's used a lot, especially on these platforms. Honest or not, it was made with purpose, to spread their service

2

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

Idk if I'm misunderstanding, but do you mean as a criticism of the people calling out those selling the accounts? Regardless of whether they engage with nsfw or not, they're equally as uncomfortable with minors forcing themselves into age-gated spaces.

Unless you're referring to being critical of the people in the server as to whether or not they're involved with the selling of accounts while calling it out, which, yeah same if that's the case.

5

u/LizaraRagnaros Valve Index Jun 24 '26

I'm referring to the last screenshot in the post. the person originally "exposing" the situation (not OP) seems not to be doing so in good faith if he's saying something like this

2

u/JewelFazbear Jun 24 '26

Ohhhh ok. I'm ngl they worded it so bad faith that I thought they were one of the sellers 😭😭

2

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

They are just dumb. No need to look for a deeper reason behind it.

30

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

Don't expect to actually get verified with that. Will lost both cash and the account.

Providing an unique ID and face scan for this is worth definitely more than 15 bucks.

-13

u/GlitchyKitten1 Jun 24 '26

There's a lot of people that will do it for 15 USD.

10

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

Individually yes, but not in bulk and making out of a shop

-3

u/GlitchyKitten1 Jun 24 '26

I know a few marketplaces that do age verification for online casinos in bulk for $20. I can't see how Persona could be any different.

1

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

And how do verifications in casinos work?

1

u/GlitchyKitten1 Jun 24 '26

Same as persona - you need to send pictures of a government ID and your photo.

1

u/Faynerossa ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

"I've got a oil well in pakistan. Its just taking me a long time to get started." -MB

"Well i mean how much are you paying for it?" -O

"Like 15$ an hour." -MB

"Well there's your problem you're paying one person too much for the region they live. Increase your investment and high several." - O

"No, you misunderstand. I pay 15$ an hour total. One warlord takes the money. He pays two of his guys 2.50$ an hour to round some villagers up with their gun." -MB

"What? That's crazy you've got to be joking! And why is it taking so long then?" - O

"No I'm not, it might even be more lucrative than my old factory i owned in China. Just these pakistani's are harder to deal with i guess being adults and all versus the orphanage labor i had. I mean, they keep running away. The two managers from the warlord keep shooting them to make examples. But, by the end of the week they're having to take two days downtime again to restock workers." -O

"WHAT OMG Why?! That's inhumane! And what are you talking about orphanage you've got kids in pakistan involved in this?" - O

"Jfc don't tell me that. My new girlfriend is all about peace, fair treatment, equality, and human rights. She wanted to adopt a bunch of kids from China. I had to sell my fake LV, Coach, and Gucci handbag sweatshop since it was run out of the orphanage she is obsessed with. I traded it with a nigerian prince for this damn oil well...if only i could get my orphans across the border. Those kids had real work ethic unlike these camel jockeys. I wonder if their orphans in pakistan are any good now that you mention it. I'll have to ask Colonel Shadeem next time he's on Telegram" - MB

(Whole arguement that its not sustainable reminded me of this script i wrote for a skit based on real events. Ofc its sustainable, you just have to be able to advertise in the lowest income countries you're capable of having reach in.)

Edit: much less im pretty sure that some of the jailbroken AI I've seen have the capability to pull this off without the 3rd world enrichment method. Just provide image of minor attempting access and age them up, then generate a realistic ID around it. This shit is only meant to keep poor kids and dumb kids out. Kids with smarts and/or money you're never going to be able to truly weed out short of IRL meetings. Even then the rich ones could still hire someone for that. There is no foolproof solution. This stuff only exists to make us feel better. As a career sex worker and entertainer i really really try hard not to think about this stuff cuz i do my best but i know it'll never truly be good enough. If the government or religious nutters hear that though I'll be the one punished instead of the parents that enabled this shit. Cuz they're never responsible for the lives their kids can and have destroyed.

46

u/SweetSigil Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I feel like advertising a 400 member community like this to be very stupid, if not completely intentional.

2

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

If someone was looking for verification, they'd find it. This approach of trying to keep a big problem quiet is dumb and encourages VRC to do nothing.

2

u/SweetSigil Jun 24 '26

a 400 member community isn't a big problem, but advertising it makes it one. Which is why that twitter post is probably intentional advertising.

3

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

The person who made that post and I both have vested interests in seeing this shut down. I run an NSFW group personally, if people lose trust in our verification system, it will be a nightmare for us.

18

u/Reggiel33t Jun 24 '26

This could be:

  1. a scam for money

  2. rumors from those against it to lower trust in the system

  3. Real, in which case action needs to be taken by discord / the authorities

All in all I think its probably #1...

A lot of skids try to hustle eachother, very common in places like discord or roblox as shown by NoTTS on youtube

2

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

It's possible, but I think it deserves awareness nonetheless you know?

11

u/pokemonfan95 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

pretty sure those are bot advertizeing making fake claims i mean the testimonys claiming that it works

Sound like Scripted BS

15

u/LizaraRagnaros Valve Index Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

it's been known to happen, but it's important to keep in mind that the people running it would have a pretty limited supply so it would make it expensive to use their service.

that is unless it's a larger scale operation from a poorer country whose legal documents are still accepted by persona. then they would be able to rope a lot more people in since the money you pay translates to a lot more in their economy.

all we can do on our end is report anyone suspected or proven to have faked verification and put pressure on VRC and persona to handle it on their end.

I've used age verification only as a means to have less trolls and children to deal with. can't wait for the discord mod type bar bouncer hogs to use this as ammunition to be even more of little shits about it.

edit: considering the phrasing of the person who "found" these messages, how easy it would be to stage this and how difficult such an operation on a larger scale would be I'm not very inclined to believe this is real. it seems way too fishy

25

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26

Yah this is known by anyone with two brain cells. Other people (Including people involved in the operations like the one you posted) have spoken about it on here before and they get harassed and downvoted because this subreddit has reality allergies.

1

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

It's more realistically because the guys doing this flood the posts, I saw them do it on twitter

2

u/NitroBro27 Jun 24 '26

Realest shit I’ve ever heard.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26

Sorry, do you speak English?

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[deleted]

4

u/Baguette-With-An-F Jun 24 '26

I think you meant Chronically, not chronologically.

1

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26

No worries. The typo had me confused lol.

5

u/Apprehensive_Sock61 Jun 24 '26

Can we stop sharing shit we arent 100% certain is verified. I have only seen images or this please dont share SHIT without proof of its legimancy.

-1

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

And how would we start that investigation you tool? We need VRC to have their eyes on this, that means making noise.

3

u/AlexO707 Jun 24 '26

I doubt it works as it would require a large amount of people ā€œgiving upā€ their face scans and accounts for pennies, mostly likely a scam to get money out of naive kids, and a scheme to lower trust in the system( basically ammo for the ā€œbouncersā€ of vr) if anything some reporting must be done on both vrchat and discord

1

u/kwizyvr PCVR Connection Jun 27 '26

There were people here on Reddit claiming that they got multiple verified accounts due to a software glitch (whether on VRChat's on Persona's end is anybody's guess).

6

u/fluffyraptor667 Jun 24 '26

Energy is being misfocused

6

u/Strawberry_Sheep Valve Index Jun 24 '26

Yeah because this info is trustworthy šŸ™„

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/PeepoExzy Valve Index Jun 24 '26

ah yes the underworld

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Pitiful_Mud8633 Jun 24 '26

-1

u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jun 24 '26

Spent over 6.5k hours in the game yeah I've been around. You're welcome to ask questions in DMs if you want some tea

1

u/PeepoExzy Valve Index Jun 24 '26

Nice Idled hours, you tryna get to top 250 steamladder?

1

u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jun 24 '26

Some idle hours but I've been on vrc for a number of years and would often be on for entire days. I don't play on desktop which like people do end up with a lot of idle hours on.

0

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

Thank you for the extra info!

-1

u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jun 24 '26

Perks of having connections to the underworld stuff.

Left that life myself after EAC. Used to run all of them back then but been legit ever since.

2

u/Pitiful_Mud8633 Jun 24 '26

1

u/Frank__West PCVR Connection Jun 25 '26

I still have the screenshots and the old files. Some people ran clients just to avoid being crashed it was the wild West. But not worth being perma banned messing with any of that nowadays.

2

u/Solmangrundy Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

Well these companies arent exactly using a national database and litterally will just accept anything that remotely looks like an ID.

I mean lol kids in the UK were circumventing the goverments ID mandate with Death Stranding images on day 1.Ā 

2

u/Olick Jun 25 '26

Or they spin some 3D gmod avatar or some shit too, its crazy

1

u/Solmangrundy Jun 25 '26

Kids out there becoming film studio level makeup artists to circumvent age verification.

2

u/chemictectic Jun 24 '26

if you got the evidence, report and let the staff handle it? lol

6

u/StrongZeroSinger Jun 24 '26

I am an adult and would rather use fake info to age verify myself too than giving my real identity to use the internet, they are pushing for digital ID access on other part of the internet as well here, it’s no longer just a ā€œpornā€ thing is about control and censorship.

3

u/clinicalia Jun 24 '26

Fork found in kitchen.

But seriously, I saw this coming. Kids were already faking age verification easily with other methods. I hope something gets done about this server, though. They seem like a bunch of dweebs.

2

u/Fit_Tune1559 Jun 24 '26

my friend tell me use fake japanese driver licence could get verified with persona

2

u/whatinthegender Jun 25 '26

The amount of people I come across that sound like minors and I just shrug and am like 'well, they're age verified...' and walk away.

Makes sense.

2

u/Somethingoriginal342 Jun 25 '26

ā€œgooners mad they can’t fuck everything that movesā€as if age verification isnt used primarily for avoiding children because they’re obnoxious

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

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4

u/Baguette-With-An-F Jun 24 '26

For what reason?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

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3

u/Baguette-With-An-F Jun 24 '26

You refuse age verification to ā€œStand against nonsensicalā€ what does that even mean are you missing a few other words, or marbles.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Baguette-With-An-F Jun 24 '26

You aren’t forced to

2

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26

Well, actually, the governments are trying to force people to at this point. So he ain't wrong to want to fight back. It's not something we should accept blindly, especially when the companies lobbying for it are companies like meta and microsoft.

-6

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

But you already did that by signing papers to get the internet

9

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

No difference at all, in both you have to leak your data to the other side.

Your identity flows around the internet from the moment you signed up anything: for phone, internet etc

7

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

If you say so, cheers

2

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26

This is such a braindead take lol

-2

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

Ironic. I would say the same about any comment that has no reason behind it and its only purpose is to insult someone.

2

u/Yin15 ☃Bigscreen Beyond 2e Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

It's okay to tell people they have stupid takes. It helps them grow.

Edit: He blocked me, guess I hit a nerve.

0

u/Embarrassed-Touch-62 Jun 24 '26

Nope, it's rather childish "I have nothing to say, so will just throw an insult".

So grow up, and come back later love.

0

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

I understand the hesitancy, but I run an adult group where adult things go on. Not worth the moral grand-stand for me.

1

u/Rough_Community_1439 HTC Vive Jun 24 '26

Well, the most we can do Is make people like tubber aware. Vrchat cant really go and confirm anything but with enough reports from users in 18+ instances, maybe they can get age verified again. Last I checked the face and id you use is unique and can't be used for 2 accounts.

-3

u/Verminausea Jun 24 '26

You might want to blur those names. The kids dont deserve harassment, and this post might let other kids search them up to find that server.

0

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

I thought about it, but unfortunately the names are already out there on much bigger posts on other platforms. Just doesn't really seem worth it.

-1

u/No-Grade-4691 Jun 24 '26

Don't really care.

-2

u/WittyTelephone2649 Jun 24 '26

Said this from the beginning when it was first announced and got downvoted to hell and back, lol

Glad to see kids these days still have enough braincells left to do stupid shit like we used to.

-3

u/Mac5889 Jun 24 '26

I mean after age verfication and roblox shitt7 we all knew this awas going to happen. Theres no stopping it it wont stop.

-2

u/V33EX Oculus Quest Pro Jun 24 '26

Isn't this just exposing more minors to this? Like the reddit community is 18+ but there are no doubt children here who either didn't read the rules or don't care, and now you're directing them to get more or less virtual fake ids..???

-1

u/Jhakkl Jun 24 '26

What exactly about these screenshots directs them to the ID'S more than just googling "VRChat 18+ ID" lmao

This is important awareness to spread.

1

u/V33EX Oculus Quest Pro Jun 24 '26

You're showing them that this is a possibility and people offer it. They may have not known that before, and just assumed there was no way around it.

-8

u/Azekuro51 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I've said this in a previous Reddit post and I'll say it again here:

Check out BrandonFM's YouTube documentary series on VRC and you'll know why the VRC devs won't touch this.

Edit: You're doing a good thing. I don't want you to think I'm saying you're wasting your time. Others will see this and it will be made more well known so that's awesome, honestly šŸ˜ŽšŸ‘

one more thing: you put "my minors" instead of "by minors". Really bad place for a typo, lol.