‘Genshin Impact’ Introducing Age Verification For US Players, Failure To Comply “Will Result In Account Suspension”
In response to getting slapped down by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over their manipulative and exploitative business practices, developer miHoYo has announced that they will soon be implementing mandatory age verification requirements for Genshin Impact‘s American player base.
As previously reported, late January, the FTC hit miHoYo with a $20 million USD fine after finding that the developer was both illegally collecting the data of Genshin Impact‘s young players and using a deceptive virtual currency exchange to obfuscate how much they were spending on loot boxes.
Ordered by the government entity to update their data collection and gacha marketing practices, miHoYo confirmed the first such update to their operations on May 9th, informing players via a news post made to the official Genshin Impact website that going forward, they will be “required by law to age verify US player accounts.”
“The age verification process will be rolled out to all US players by May 20th while login (if already have one) or account registration,” explained Cognosphere, the miHoYo publishing branch responsible for Genshin Impact‘s operation. “Please ensure to provide your [month-based] age information by July 18th, 2025. Failure to verify will result in: Account suspension, in-game friends and chat records will be deleted, and no further notifications post-suspension due to inaccessible account information as required by law.”
“If the verification is not completed by July 20th, 2026, the personal information of your HoYoverse account will be deleted permanently,” they concluded.
As to what the specific ‘age limits’ Cognosphere will be implementing, per their official Minor Safety support page, “If a player enters an age below the age of digital consent in their region [13 in the United States], their account will might be restricted from accessing certain content and features until a parent or guardian grants the required permission.”
“Once you are asked to contact your parent, please complete the registration process with your parent’s supervision and assistance,” it continues, going on to explicitly warn, “Your account will be deleted in 9 days if you do not pair you account to your parent’s email and obtain parental consent.”
To this end, parents and guardians will be asked “to verify their identity by credit card or the last 4 digits of their SSN”, with this service being provided by Kids Web Services (KWS), who HoYoverse has team with to “provide a secure and smooth verificaition experience.”
Providing some additional details in an update made to their official response to the FTC’s judgement, Cognosphere further noted that alongside this “age gate” to Genshin Impact, they would also be introducing “Parental Controls” and updating Drop Rate disclosures with more details for players residing in the U.S.”
“By May 20, we will roll out the new Age Gate and certain functions of the Parental Control system in Genshin Impact and HoYoLAB, the community forum for HoYoverse games, for all players residing in the U.S.,” they detailed. “U.S. players verified as younger players will need consent from a parent or guardian to continue accessing Genshin Impact or HoYoLAB. Once consent is provided, parents and guardians can manage younger players’ access to Genshin Impact, its in-game community, and HoYoLAB through the new Parental Control Portal.”
Cognosphere has also confirmed that “parental controls for payment access in Genshin Impact will be available in July,” while the updated Wish Drop Rate disclosure is now available (a related order by the FTC requiring the disclosure of both “loot box odds, price and features” as well as the “loot box odds and exchange rates for multi-tiered virtual currency” has already been implemented).
While these specific changes currently only apply to Genshin Impact, it appears Cognosphere will soon be bringing them to the rest of their gacha offerings, including Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd, Zenless Zone Zero, and Tears of Themis.
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