One UK-based Steam user has claimed that the PC storefront prompted them to verify if they were 18, despite their Steam account itself being 19 years old, amusing other gamers on social media. Following the ratification of a certain UK law, Steam has been asking its users in the country for age verification before accessing games with mature content.
Since at least August 29, Valve has introduced a new age-verification measure on Steam for its UK users to comply with the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), which was originally passed in 2023 but has been gradually coming into effect over time. The measure relies on the active credit card saved in a particular account to verify the account user’s age. With the new changes in place, those who are under 18 years of age won’t be able to access mature content games and related community hubs on Steam. In certain regions, similar content is accessible by simply entering the user’s date of birth without any background checks of any kind.
Steam Prompts an Account Created 19 Years Ago to Prove the User is 18
In a funny instance of the UK law coming into action, a Twitter user called Christina Tasty shared being required to verify their age despite reportedly owning a Steam account for 19 years. While they said that the verification process was not too invasive, they were surprised upon seeing the verification prompt given their specific account age. The user also revealed that this prompt interestingly appeared when they tried to visit the Steam page for a game that they already owned. In the comments section, the post started a chain of other longtime Steam users sharing images of their own respective account ages. Several comments also opined that the UK law was more responsible for the tweet author’s troubles than Valve.
The implementation of the UK Online Safety Act across Steam comes amid a separate sweeping wave in which certain adult games have been taken down from the PC gaming storefront. These content exclusions on Valve’s platform arose from a new clause that barred any content prohibited by payment processors, such as Visa and Mastercard. Apart from Steam, a similar rule also impacted Itch.io’s library of adult games, which were then partially restored after community backlash.
Speaking of adult games, earlier this year, certain users began noticing an option to entirely do away with the warning displayed on the Steam page of games containing mature content. However, this feature was reportedly only showing up for a limited number of users and was not a worldwide rollout.
- Brand
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Valve
- Original Release Date
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September 12, 2003
- Original MSRP (USD)
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N/A
- Weight
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N/A
Steam is a digital video game storefront and program developed by Valve that allows gamers to purchase, play, and mod their titles all through one convenient program.
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