Spotify threatens to delete accounts that fail age-verification

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/30/spotify-threatens-to-delete-accounts-unless-users-prove-the/

by 00DEADBEEF

29 comments

  1. This is fucking insane, how can this even be about “protecting kids” when it’s listening to music? I think this is the one policy that I’m going be thinking about when it comes to Labour for years and years.

    As a former Labour supporter, I’d rather army crawl through shards of broken glass than ever vote for this incarnation of Labour, again and I sure as fuck wouldn’t vote for them just to keep Reform out because I hate Reform more than I hate Labour, I’ll just vote for the Lib Dems despite knowing there’s no chance in hell of them winning.

    I have two genuine questions that I’m interested in finding out.

    1. Do we even live in a democracy anymore?
    2. Why aren’t we calling Keir Starmer an autocrat like we would with Victor Orban in Hungary or Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus? Yes, he’s not imprisoned anyone for disagreeing with him ***yet*** but he’s shown some terrifyingly authoritarian tendencies.

  2. Honestly, this is entirely necessary. I listened to Fuckin In The Bushes by Oasis once and now I’m a serial dogger

  3. Spotify didn’t even ask me to identify my age…

    So now I am worried I will lose my account.

    I have 100s of playlists and songs saved.

  4. Well, that sounds like an encouragement to pirate. If you delete peoples accounts and they have bought something…. well… what is it that they say? If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing. Fuck you, Spotify lol

    It has been years since I properly used Spotify. You can buy albums akin to iTunes, right? You also pay for membership. So they should certainly refund that if they delete your account.

  5. Totally necessary. Children might hear some no no words in the bad music.

  6. I don’t understand this at all.
    What is on Spotify that isn’t in some music songs on the radio or TV these days?

  7. Just throw this whole island in the bin at this point lol, I can’t be arsed

  9. It’s the Torygraph, complaining about legislation it championed not so long ago because it came from the “right party”: https://archive.ph/cYDbY

    And, once again, it’s the usual mix of misdirection and dissembling:

    > “You cannot use Spotify if you don’t meet the minimum age requirements for the market you’re in,” a new page on Spotify’s website reads. “If you cannot confirm you’re old enough to use Spotify, your account will be deactivated and eventually deleted.”

    The minimum age Spotify has chosen for its service is 13 (and might be higher in some jurisdictions though they don’t exactly make it clear which). They have a specific service for under-13s, which is not regular Spotify.

    The government-mandated age check is triggered by accesses to 18+ content. They seem to have taken this opportunity to clear out accounts for under-13s using the same software, and probably only when triggered by a 18+ check.

    So, yeah the sky is falling. Will the last persion turn the lights off when they’re done. Oh wait…

    I think it’s fair to say at this stage, if you take a story at face value in the Telegraph, you’ve been played.

  10. But remember the supporters of the act claim all it does is protect children from porn and the worst it will do to adults is just “make it harder for you to jerk off”

  12. I am fed up of being treated like a child because other people can’t be arsed to adequately parent their children. 

    Seriously, if you have children it is **your responsibility** to monitor and filter their internet usage. 

  13. Remember it’s just a porn ban guys, as long as you’re not one of those weirdos this won’t affect your life in anyway /s

  14. Oh no, now who am I going to pay to listen to music 😭 /s

  15. I wonder how that’s going to work, I imagine they’ll be deleting a lot of accounts and the income that comes from them.

  16. so get in there and cancel your account if its a paid account

    and make sure if they ask you tell them why

  17. Apparently it’s only non premium that is getting flagged for this. As an almost 9 year premium account holder, I’m waiting to see if that’s the case.

  18. They must know I’m in my 40s because I pay for it with my bank ? So why I need age verification

  19. And I have to create an account in order to read rhe article.

  20. I’m waiting for someone educated enough to do a deep dive on Yoti, the government back and endorsed platform for ID verification. It has ties to shady websites and lots of loopholes (i.e. Android emulators).

  22. Download all your playlists as text files. I forget names but many sites offer this. I keep a “backup” I do each year if something happens to my account. The lists are very large and I could never remember all of the music I have accumulated, so this is very important to me. 

  23. Holly shit, I thought you Brits are getting only porn blocked. This is mad, what else you need to verify for? Hope this will not happen in EU but I’m quite sure it’ll everywhere. This is like final nail in what internet was 🙁

  24. Hmm I thought me paying a direct fucking debit from my fucking bank account every fucking month would be enough to prove I’m an adult. JFC this country.

  25. Guess I’m going to have to put my 500 + cd collection onto a drive….don’t even own a cd drive in these times lol

  26. Time to sail the high seas again I guess.

    Poweramp is a great media player for locally installed music on your phone.

  27. Clearly if you oppose this you support online child predators.

  28. They’re about to lose a lot of subscribers then. Overpriced cash grab bullshit anyway. Love it when toxic management shoot themselves in the foot thinking they’re untouchable.

  29. So let me get this straight, in a few weeks, Labour has:

    + Allowed 16-17 Year olds to vote.

    + Antagonised that demographic by restricting the internet. Thus, by the 2029 general election, anyone 12-17+ at the moment will see you as the party that turned the internet to shit.

    + Then Peter Kyle the cunt made stupid comments that somehow made Nigel fucking Farage seem reasonable.

    + And to top it off, Corbyn announces his party which will split the left vote.

    What even is this labour government lmao.

Comments are closed.