Steam users now need a credit card to access “mature content” in the UK

UK Steam users now need a credit card to prove they are old enough for “mature game content”

Valve’s Steam platform has started complying with the UK’s Online Safety Act, which requires age verification to access “mature content” online. To comply, Steam users in the UK must now validate their age using a credit card. In the UK, you must be 18 or over to obtain a credit card. By adding a credit card as a payment method on Steam, users can validate their age without sharing any unnecessary personal information.

The UK’s Online Safety Act of 2023 was created by the UK’s then-Conservative government. The act came into force earlier this year, creating a verification nightmare for the UK’s internet users.

It is worth noting that Valve’s approach to age verification is more private than that of other companies. Reddit, Discord, and other platforms use selfies for age verification, which requires them to receive and store images of their users. To make matters worse, many websites outsource this work to foreign firms, which means that a foreign entity can access images of UK internet users and information about the platforms they use. Valve states that their “process preserves the maximum degree of user privacy.”

In order to access Steam store pages for mature content games as well as their associated community hubs, you need to be logged into an active user account and explicitly opt-in through the account settings page.

For UK users, this opt-in process requires age verification. Your UK Steam user account is considered age verified for as long as a valid credit card is stored on the account.

– Steam

The UK’s Online Safety Act is a privacy nightmare, but Valve has avoided this problem

Many internet users call the UK’s Online Safety Act a privacy nightmare. If more entities carry personal information for their UK users, these entities become more attractive targets for hackers. This will make the internet less safe for the UK’s internet users, contradicting the act’s name.

Valve, to their credit, has taken an approach that complies with the law that minimises security concerns. Valve verifies credit cards using its own payment processing systems, and data processing is the same as with any Steam user who makes purchases using the platform. No information about a user’s content preferences is provided to payment processors or 3rd parties.

You can join the discussion on Steam’s compliance with the UK’s Online Safety Act on the OC3D Forums.