Last night, I personally found myself getting signed out of my Xbox account here in the UK while browsing the dashboard, and then being prompted with the same age verification message that's been cropping up here for a while now. I ignored it, signed back in, and went back to playing a single-player game that I can't actually talk about just yet!
However, it turns out that I wasn't the only one. On social media, various Xbox users reported that they'd also been signed out of their accounts, and some of them were having difficulty accessing certain features when they logged back in. Loading into GTA Online is an example that's been brought up a few times.
I've tested this as well today, and can confirm that I'm also experiencing issues accessing GTA Online — I get the following warning screen, and then changing my settings just results in a generic error message.
Worse still, is that people are finding it impossible to verify their age via Xbox right now. The official Xbox Support website mentions that Microsoft is "aware of the issue and working to fix it" in regards to the "UK age assurance experience", so all of this seems to be related to some kind of glitch(es) in the system.
The only thing we can suggest for now is to sit tight, as we assume Microsoft is working hard behind the scenes to resolve whatever's going on here. That said, it's already been confirmed that some features will require mandatory age verification (in applicable regions) by some point in early 2026, as detailed on the Xbox support website:
"As part of our compliance programme for the UK Online Safety Act and our ongoing investments in tools and technologies that help ensure age-appropriate experiences, we’ve introduced age verification for Microsoft accounts in the UK."
"Players who don't verify their age between can continue to play and enjoy Xbox. However access to certain social features will be limited to friends only unless age verification is complete."
There's no confirmation that this has been fully implemented yet, and it's probably not worth trying to verify your age until they've fixed the issues behind the scenes anyway. We'll let you know if and when Microsoft provides an update.